Aurora had hoped that teleportation magic existed so they could reach Valoria kingdom in the blink of an eye. But as far as ordinary human magic went, it was not possible.

They had been on their way to Valoria kingdom, as planned. While Ruby looked outside the carriage and Rita calmly sat in front of them, Aurora was busy thinking.

Ordinary magic may be impossible, but what about ancient Magic? Aurora thought. Well, the closest thing to teleportation is her own magic, LightSpeed. But she can only use it on herself, not to mention its limitations.

"What have you been thinking about for a while now?" Ruby asked, interrupting Aurora's thoughts.

"It's nothing," Aurora said. "I just feel like if we move this slowly, we might be too late."

She wasn't just talking about the huntress; she meant the whole situation. Nova hadn't told her how much time they had to prepare. It wouldn't be funny if she ended up wasting that limited time on the way like this.

"Well, this is pretty much the usual," Ruby said. "Though I wonder if there's a way to go around faster? I never really looked into it. Do you know something, Rita?"

The knight thought for a bit. "What about Casiopia?" she said.

"The home of the harpy?" Ruby asked.

"Harpy as in bird girl?" Aurora asked.

Rita nodded. "They were infamous for their obsession with speed. And if we picked the route to the west, it was on the way to Valoria kingdom. We could make a quick stop there. They might have a faster way to go around."

That was the setting for the game 'Speed Freak Uta', if Aurora remembered correctly. Unfortunately, she wasn't a big fan of racing games, so she didn't know much about it. That was the reason she hadn't really thought about it either.

"Let's try it then," Aurora said.

If it could help them move faster, it was always worth trying. Even if nothing came out of it, at the very least, she would figure out the situation in that game. That was always a good thing.

In a few hours, they reached Casiopia, the city of harpies. They were immediately greeted by a scene where bird girls were flying all over the place.

Aurora noticed that they were using some sort of magic device in the shape of a bag. They wore it like a backpack or hip bag, which made them fly faster.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The cityscape itself was full of high ground that was hard to reach, making it a pain for normal humans to go from one place to another. Some were even impossible to reach without flying.

"Oh hey!" One harpy flew down in front of them. "What are you group of humans doing here?"

"We're looking for something that can take us faster than a carriage," Aurora said.

"Aha! So you're interested in speed too?" she said. "Pretty good, human. I don't know what might help you, but why don't you check out some of our shops? Something might catch your eye."

"Alright, thank--" The bird girl had already flown away. "--you," Aurora said.

"How rude, just leaving like that," Ruby said.

They then tried to go to the shopping district. Some of the shops had several floors, and the top floor was inaccessible without flying.

"I bet not many humans come here," Ruby said. "So which one do we go to first?"

"Let's check out the first floor for now," Aurora said. "We will think about how to check the higher floors later if necessary."

They checked several shops with no luck until one of the shops they visited gave them some direction.

"Why don't you check Grandma Sachi?" she said. "She is the oldest shop owner here, and she is your best bet if you're looking for unconventional items."

They then followed her advice, arrived at an old-looking shop, but it was clean and tidy, giving them the feeling of an experienced shop. They entered.

"Excuse me, do you have a way for us to move faster than a regular carriage?" Ruby asked.

"Ho, a human interested in speed? Pretty good," the old lady shop owner said. "Our device was created with our unique technology and deep understanding of Wind itself."

"We know," Ruby said. "We already heard the same thing from another shop."

"Is that so? Then please follow me," the old lady harpy said as she started to walk toward the door at the back of the shop. "For us, flying was second nature. So usually we just strapped the device to ourselves if we wanted to go somewhere fast. But we did sometimes create prototypes like this."

The old lady Sachi opened the door and entered. Aurora and the others followed behind.

"A carriage that could move faster than being dragged by a horse," she said, showing off her product. "But to be able to use it, at least you needed to be able to use wind magic."

Aurora and Ruby immediately looked at Rita.

"Uh, I guess I will do it?" Rita said.

"Good," the old lady said. "This thing was old and unmaintained. It will take some time to fix it. And you stay here, we will need you to calibrate this device with your wind magic so it will be a smoother experience overall."

Rita nodded.

"While you two," the old lady addressed Ruby and Aurora. "Why don't you go sightseeing in our city? It's a waste to just sit around doing nothing, after all."

Ruby was excited with the idea. So Aurora had no other choice but to say, "Sure."

Not that she hated the idea either. While sightseeing, she could try to look for Uta and the other characters from the game.

Except for one thing...

"Wait, what if we get lost?" Aurora asked.

"Don't worry, Miss Aurora," Rita said. "With my magic, I think I can track both of you. But do try not to go too far."

"Alright, let's go then!" Ruby said excitedly.

They got out of the shop and started adventuring. Probably because harpies could just fly away, a lot of paths ended up taking them to dead ends, forcing them to backtrack.

"It's kind of fascinating for a few times," Ruby said as they got to the dead end again. "But now it's just a pain."

Aurora giggled. "Yes, I think they're kind of doing it on purpose at this point."

They had then tried to check out the city garden, which seemed to be a hangout place for a few young harpies. These harpies had been sitting on top of the huge trees, eating and chatting, and looked like they were having fun, which Aurora and Ruby couldn't really join.

Besides that, there were a lot of food stalls around that garden that they could try. Aurora tried one that looked like candy on a stick.

"How is it?" Ruby asked.

Aurora gave it a bite. "They tasted okay, I guess?"

"Really?" Ruby got closer and took a bite too.

"Hey!" Aurora said.

Ruby grinned. "Want to try some more?"

They bought some more food before leaving that area, and then they had arrived at the racing area. There stood the biggest building in that city. It seemed like the most popular place there, with harpies flying in and out of that place nonstop.

"They were so obsessed with speed, huh?" Ruby said. "How pointless. The moment you join the race, they will lose anyway."

"Hey, what did you say, jerkface?" a bird girl with bad temperament overheard Ruby and got close to them. "Even though you were just a tourist, I wouldn't forgive you for looking down on us, especially about speed!"

***