29 - Barrel roll

The Lady from the noble family of healers had uttered something unbelievably ridiculous into his ears. According to Rinia, this was something every Sharded mother would love to experience. She was talking about enjoying bedtime fun together with their daughter.

Ake froze for a few seconds too long. His old Earth mind couldn’t compute, returning error messages in an endless loop.

It was so alien, he could even say the word inside his head.

What she told and asked of him was simply outrageous. He couldn’t respond to such a request, so he just did what a man should do in such a situation.

Kept an aloof, detached expression, and thought about Roman architecture.

“I know it is too much to ask, but please, Ake,” Lady Rinia pleaded with her soft hand on his cheek, gently forcing him to look at her.

“I’ll think about it,” he sighed, but the Lady still beamed a smile at him.

It could have been worse, as for a second there, he thought she wanted him to be some sort of fatherly figure. He was wrong, which was nothing new, but for a change, he was glad to be not in the right.

Rinia went down on her knees to give a mouthful thanks. Winning her over was far behind him when a lady did this without a prompt. The lady was an expert at this, but despite enjoying it, he didn’t think he could do what she had asked.

No doubt this crazy cultural difference originated from one thing.

The freaking monster shards.

It had not only granted humans magic, it also had impacted human physical, mental, and cultural norms. Something told him humans in this world might have had similar social norms to Earth before the desperate adaptation of the shards.

The change should have happened gradually over the years after the use of monster shards spread among humans. It was not unreasonable to imagine the old norms would be gone or disfigured after a few generations.

Who knew what else the shards were doing to human physiology, well, other than the obvious? Even human DNA might be altered and mutated in real-time.

It was a disturbing but not implausible idea.

But there was a limit to everything. Ake was just a man. Her rather bizarre plea had been the final push, and he had to get away to clear his head.

Ake was out of the luxurious room, checking the airship out.

Rinia was in the dreamland after a particularly lengthy spiritual healing session. The Lady was so messed up in the head that she needed sex to lull her to sleep.

Perhaps it was the shards, but believe it or not, he was growing stale being only with the devoted lady. It didn’t help even her looks were already beyond any supermodels back on Earth. He didn’t think anyone would grow tired from her warm, undivided attention.

But at the time, the airship was more interesting to him than anything else. It was crazy and didn’t make sense, but that was what it felt like.

As the name suggested, the flying craft had a hull in the shape of a seafaring vessel instead of the airplanes he used to see. Unsurprisingly, there were no ropes around to tie anything off. The sturdy, flattened-tube fabrics had taken over that task.

Believe it or not, he hadn’t had the chance to ride on one back in the old world, but he was doing fine on this one. No one else was around because it was dead in the morning. The wind whistled in his ears, but it didn’t feel cold.

The fabric balloon or the airship’s three ‘envelopes’ had a sizable hole along its length like an elongated donut. Its smooth and uniquely seamless, composition should only be possible in this world.

The wind was strongest inside this elongated air-aperture, providing lift and forward thrust for the airship. The design reminded him of the bladeless fan, but on a much larger scale and considerably lengthier from the intake to the out-draft.

A jetpack or personal version of the torus balloon should be a fun pastime project.

The airship also had five bat-like wings that would provide better control over its pitch and yaw. The smaller forward wings prevented the airship from tipping downward at the bow because of its placement.

And if anyone had asked him, the huge airship probably could barrel-roll on command. It was a terrible idea, but it would be so cool to witness it once. He also didn’t think there would be a situation that would force such a maneuver.

A subtle smile grew on his face. The spiritual healings must have worked as being buried in her gentle warmth and softness was like weird therapy. All he needed to smile was some alone time and perhaps a nice view.

Rinia had grown into him, but she was too high up the ladder to be anything else. Ake probably needed to be noble blood to stand beside her.

“Growing tired of the demure lady?” Said someone from his back, pulling him out of his endless train of thought.

Ake turned towards the voice and shrugged.

The blond in a robe uniform greeted him with a nod, and he nodded back.

He couldn’t deny it, Rinia was a demure lady despite her never lacking enthusiasm. The lady was ideally submissive, almost to a fault, but clearly, she hadn’t entertained him, a plain commoner, for days with no selfless reason.

The woman had hinted, plenty of times, that she would be pleased if he didn’t commercialize the ability. She probably wanted the ability for herself, and Ake was fine with whatever she had in mind. Money and fame were never important to him.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I take that as a yes,” the young lady chuckled. “We might still have a choice between ourselves, but we commoners can’t say no to those above our station, yes? Well, without facing the consequences.”

“I never had such an experience so I won’t know,” Ake chuckled.

The female walked closer and leaned on the railing beside him. Her blond ponytail flapped with the wind as her big blue eyes checked on him. Ake could tell by her figure that she was born from a Sharded womb, but the girl’s mother might not be as successful as Mars.

“You are a fine-looking young man,” she said. “I’m sure a few girls had their interest in you. Why would a man lie about something he should brag about?”

“Well, what if I tell you that I’m a ‘white’?”

She was taken aback as a gasp escaped her.

“No way, yer not kidding, ain’t ya?”

Ake chuckled at the leaking ascent. The woman straightened herself when she realized what she had just said. She probably was wondering how he was even alive.

“So is that why not one of those people has taken you in?”

“Take me in as what?”

“As in adopted into their noble family, take their end name for yourself?”

“No, no one had said anything to me, not even Lady Rinia,” Ake shrugged. “Not that I’m hoping for such a thing, but I guess adopting a white into any family will ruin their reputation so much that no one is willing to bring it up.”

Ake chuckled. He had said his thoughts out loud and met with her eyes and mouth wide open. She sighed and mulled about something for a moment.

“My name is Nisha. I’m in this sailor robe because I love to fly,” the girl’s cheeks were red as she introduced herself, “And I’ve never thought-,” Nisha stopped herself from spelling it out with a sad smile. “Lady Rinia is one of the good ones, but to think she saved just you because she needed you in her bed is, well, should be natural, I guess.”

Ake shrugged. He guessed it would look like that for an outsider.

He was fine letting Rinia take the credit for the ability’s discovery as it would avoid him unwanted attention. The Lady might think he was unbelievably generous, but he would never correct her. He had worked hard to win her over, and the last thing he needed was his guilt running everything.

In exchange, the Lady had promised she would love to handle everything else for him, so Nisha was not wrong. He was only here on the first-class flight because he could bed the noble Lady even as a commoner, thanks to the curse shard.

The only difference was he just didn’t get paid. He would have cursed the fact if the Lady wasn’t as gorgeously appealing as she was kind.

“You do what you must to survive, right?” Nisha continued. “I guess I would have done the same if it would save my insignificant life. It is a win for both also as no one will complain about it. It will be a hugely different story if another man from another family is in your place right now.”

“Are you saying that each noble family doesn't play nice with one another?”

“Some of them are allied, thankfully, but even among allies will need permission from both families before any action in bed,” Nisha explained.

The airship rocked under their feet, and Nisha cursed out loud. He scanned the darkness and realized that Liara was right, it was not all fun and games riding the airship.

A loud bang echoed as something slammed on the hull’s right side.

The floor tilted almost ninety degrees, and they were both thrown off their feet.

Ake caught the female sailor by the hand as she desperately flailed in the air.

The Arms shot and grabbed on the railing and the mast. He pulled the girl’s hand into a hug while the Arms pulled them back to stand on their feet.

Luckily, the Arms had reacted faster than his brain could figure out what was happening. Ake couldn’t believe he had just avoided the nightmare of being tossed off the airship and into the darkness.

The airship lurched back to its natural position, and he endured it again with his feet flat on the floor. An alarm went off and reminded him to let go of the young woman as the airship stabilized.

“So you do have talents,” Nisha muttered as she held onto the railing.

She probably was wondering how he kept them on the airship as she checked him up and down again. The two Arms were invisible to everyone else but him, so he didn’t have to worry about that.

“I guess I do,” Ake chuckled right before the airship rocked again.

The front of the airship flung up as if it had just hurdled through a massive wave.

Nisha was tossed off her feet and into his arms as a result.

The young lady pushed herself back in surprise before she had no choice but to hang on to him. She held on for dear life as the airship rocked back and forth. It felt like something had got a hold on it and was trying to shake and pull it down.

A sudden bright light stole their attention.

In the blink of an eye, it highlighted what was happening.

A bright [Lightning] bolt came from the bow as it shot down towards the gigantic tree monster. A small but raging fire spread as it flailed its multiple wooden limbs.

There was nothing he could do to help, even if he wanted to, as the massive thing stood probably as tall as the walls back in the town. He could do nothing unless he had some sort of long-range ability.

One of its thick, bunched-up vines swung towards the airship, but an almost invisible cutting wind trimmed it short. The lightly lit deck showed a few people who should have been the source of the magical defense.

“Pull up! Up, up, up!” someone screamed at the top of their lungs.

The airship jolted straight up right after that. The sudden movement almost floored both, but the [Ethereal Arms] was there to support them.

The airship stopped its sudden ascend a few seconds later, very much to his relief.

“Nisha!” someone called desperately, and Ake separated himself from the woman.

Hurried steps headed towards them as they acted like they had been holding onto the wooden rails all this time. The young woman in uniform turned around and headed towards the man who had called for her.

Nisha tried to salute the man, but the girl was wrapped in the other man’s arms as soon as he got close. She patted the man’s back when it started to get awkward.

Ake made himself scarce as soon as possible. The man probably didn’t even notice him as all his attention was only on the pretty sailor.

Nisha looked around and politely pushed the man away when she noticed no one was in sight. The look on her face told him she was worried that someone had seen what the captain had just done.

Ake was below the main deck and just below the two while the tension between them developed further. A breath of relief escaped him when the man respected her words and didn’t push the issue any further.

He didn’t listen in when they talked, but he still stayed until someone else called for the captain, and the man had to leave to attend to his duty. Watching the drama between the two made him realize that there was more to her words.

Nisha had been sympathizing instead of just stating the fact. She probably never wanted that kind of attention from the other man, but she couldn’t just blatantly push him away.

In the girl’s eyes, Ake was in the exact plight as hers, if not much worse.

If this was true, she would be the perfect person for the next phase of his plan.