“You want to come with me.” Riya questioned, confused, “Are you sure?”

“Ya totally~!” Leo said, “It’ll be a great opportunity to see what kinds of ingredients are available on a more local scale.”

Riya wasn’t feeling super hot about this, “You can’t go by yourself.” She said.

“Of Course I can!” He said, “I’ll go in pretending to be a local!”

“You don’t know the local customs, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Then I’ll go as a merchant!”

Riya shook her head, “Merchants aren’t… Treated well here…” She remembered reading about how the MC in Merchant of Antonia was treated with distrust, how he would sometimes be beaten and robbed, how he never got any justice for all this shit he got thrown his way because he wasn’t a citizen and because he wasn’t a citizen he wasn’t allowed to enjoy any of the rights the citizens of Antonia could enjoy.

Sure Leo could out himself as being an Aub if the situation got dire, but wouldn’t that make him even more in trouble then he would be? Instead of fearing commoners, he’ll be exposed to assassins that may have been sent from other Prefectures or spies!

Ya! What if there were spies?! That would be pretty bad… Who knows what kind of information they would be able to gather and later, use against them?! “At Least take a few of your knights.” Riya said, knights were trained to look out for that shit, right? They’ll be able to keep Leo safe!

Leo looked pretty annoyed with that, “But they’re… You know!”

Riya wasn’t sure what he meant by that, “Like what?”

“...Not sure how to explain it in english… They’re… Annoying?”

Riya understood what he meant, “Ya, they can be a little annoying can’t they?” Being surrounded by so many strangers all the time wasn’t fun, especially since Riya used to stay inside her room all day long ‘studying’ when in reality she was usually on Webtoons or AO3 reading stories and fanfics. Now, the only respite she seemed to have was at the end of the day when most of her retainers left for the night and even then, only one or two knights and attendants stayed behind to make sure she was safe during the night and what not.

“Why don’t you take only one knight then?” She asked, “Someone you trust and is very strong. Besides, I won’t be going to the town.”

“What? Why not?”

“I’ll be going to the Temple. I need to do a census and all the citizen papers are inside the Temple so it’ll be a good starting point to start the work.” Riya explained.

“Oh…” Leo said, “I’d still want to come, it’s boring staying inside, there’s only so many times I can roam around and explore the castle, I’m starting to feel cabin fever.”

“Hmm… Ok… Bring one knight with you though at the very least.”

“Thank you!”

Riya sighed, hopefully she wasn’t making a mistake…

----------------------------------------

“So this is an Areomorph…” Riya muttered to herself. The thing looked like a scooty with wings and an animal head. In this case, it was a swan.

It looked ugly as fuck.

"Please, My Lady." Amelia started, "Sit behind me and hold on tight." She said as she scooted forward to give Riya some space to sit.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Riya sat down, the seat was ok, it was made of leather and was surprisingly comfortable which was weird because Nobles hadn't invented springs-in-seats yet, maybe it was magic?

Nah, it was definitely magic! That or manga logic! Mangas were weird like that, espessally otomei isekais, they always say the story takes place in mediaeval Europe or something like that but surprise~~!

Magic exists! And because of magic they have these electronics that are these weird mashups between steampunk and magecraft that look and act a lot like modern electronics.

Mainly, otomei isekai technology boils down to: looks like fantasy, acts like your everyday items.

Mostly because the authors are usually on a time crunch to finish by their deadlines or just lack the imagination.

"Hang on tight, My Lady!"

It was Riya's only warning before she suddenly went hundreds of thousands of metres into the air, "Ahhh~~!! FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK!" The wind seemed to swallow up her words.

She could barely hear Ameilia say, "Did you say something, My Lady?" But the roaring of the winds was so loud she could barely hear it.

The wind was rushing through her ears, everything felt so cold… She started to wish she brought an extra jacket or two. She had eye protection (thankfully) so her goggles kinda helped her keep her eyes open.

She didn't look down, she was definitely going to faint if she did. Instead, she looked to the side, she noticed that she was at level with the top level of the buildings.

'How high were the buildings?!' She wondered, 'Twenty stories high?! No! I must be at least thirty-five stories high!' She closed her eyes, this was all too much!

Riya didn’t know how long she was holding on for dear life, she could barely breathe… the air was too thin… the wind was too harsh and every breath felt like a stab to her lungs. She felt like she was in the mandatory drowning scene every isekai MC or the MC’s love interest went through before the love interest or the MC valiantly saves them and breathe them back to life and then they share a passionate and tender kiss and confess their feelings to each other-

“-My Lady, we have arrived.” Amelia said, “My Lady?” She asked in concern, “Are you feeling ill?”

Riya slowly loosened her grip and breathed in the fresh, fresh air, “I’m fine, Ameilia, I simply need to catch my breath.” She said as she slowly opened her eyes, the air was warm, she took off her goggles and took a good look at the world, how could she have possibly taken all this for granted?

The hard, gravel road at her feet, the tall coconut trees with their long leaves and hard, bumpy trunks, the ivory-coloured, four storey tall marble buildings-

…Wait… Riya took a look at the buildings again, those were only… four stories tall?! She was so sure they were at least twenty-five stories! They were so high up! It couldn’t have possibly been only four stories high!

“First time flying is always a bit scary, My Lady.” Amelia said, trying to provide words of comfort, “May I be bold to assume such obsolete vehicles do not exist in the heavens above?”

Riya shook her head, thinking of planes and helicopters, “They do exist, but they’re a bit more closed and go higher up and have [seatbelts].” Fuck… Weren’t Gods supposed to be these super powerful beings?! Why would they need planes and helicopters?! Not good, not good… THINK! She needed to come up with a plausible explanation! “They, uh… They exist to help aid those Gods that do not have any domains pertaining to air.”

That had to be a good enough explanation right?

“I see…” Amelia said, “The knowledge and power of the Gods is powerful and never ending…”

SUCCESS!

“Thanks for the ride~!” Leo said, Riya turned around to see him walking away and waving her a bye, he had already changed into his commoner clothes, his knight beside him also was wearing working class clothes to blend in with the population better, “I’ll be back before sundown!”

“Stay safe!” She yelled at him, “And get me a [souvenir]!”

Leo gave her a salute and turned away and started to walk faster towards the silhouette of the town.

Riya sighed and looked at her entourage, “Right.” She started, “We are about to enter the Temple, I’d like to remind you to remain courteous to the residence of the Temple because any and all misbehaviour from any of you will reflect badly on me and the Precture as a whole. The Gods have sent me to save the prefectures from a certain ruin, show that the Gods were not wrong in their decision.”

“Yes My Lady.” The Retainers replied.

Riya looked at the Temple, stealing her nerves, she walked inside, her retainers followed after her.