As morning comes I prepare myself for the day ahead, both mentally and physically. There is a good chance I am dealing with really stupid people.

“I cannot work today, I have some stuff to do.” I say to everyone at the table as we eat breakfast.

“What?” Sophia asks, surprised.

“I have a lead on the giant floating metal object I told you about.”

“But is it that urgent?”

“If I don’t go after this lead, in the worst case scenario, a dragon might show up.”

Everyone suddenly looks at me in shock. This includes Monica who is usually always the person who can keep her composure.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH A DRAGON!?” Sophia screams at me from the top of her lungs once the shock passes. Everyone on there, including me, gets a little afraid from her tone.

“Sophia, calm down. As far as I know, the information I got are the words of a mad man. That’s why I am going to check the source.”

“Don’t you tell me to calm down when a dragon could show up at any moment!”

“No, I said that in the worst case scenario one could show up. As far as I know we would have to find the damn thing before anything could happen and I never even saw a dragon. Also there is the fact that the only reason people saw dragons in the last few decades or so is because that volcano erupted, ain’t I right?” I say in a calm tone.

“Lucia, I love you, but I swear to the gods that if you bring a dragon here I will make sure you can’t walk straight for a year!” She says a little more calmly.

“We can do it without the dragon if you want. I am kinda in the mood.” I say suggestively.

Everyone besides Alfina and Sophia begins to laugh with Mess spilling whatever he is drinking. Sophia only gets what I said a few seconds later and begins to laugh with embarrassment.

Soon after I leave to go encounter those two people.

“Good morning lady Lucia. These two people say they know you.” one of the guards posted at the south gate says to me as I leave the city.

“Where are they?”

“Over there.” He points to my right where I see two people resting with their backs on the wall. I walk towards them.

“Hello. I am Lucia, the one who spoke with you two yesterday.” I say as I wave at them.

“Hello I am Wanda.” The girl in front of me says. She is probably a little older than me. She has pink curly hair that goes all the way to her shoulders, dark brown eyes, she is lightly tanned, probably from the sun, she is around 160 cm tall and an average build and face. She is not ugly but not beautiful.

“Hello, I am Gilgern but call me Gil.” The man says. He looks to be around 40 years old, black short hair that is only starting to grow, thin beard, he is somewhat pale but not the kind of paleness you get from being sick, he is probably just whiter than the average person. He is also as tall as me but I can see he is not the physical type since it looks like I have more muscle than him.

They are using the same clothes. Cotton brown pants and a shirt with a cloak made out of leather that can cover most of their body along with some sacks they are using as bags.

“I know we were expecting a woman but damn…” Wanda says to me.

“Girl! Show some respect! Can’t you feel her power?” Gil shouts at Wanda.

“Wait. She is a mage?”

“Quite the powerful one in fact.”

“But the swords…”

“I prefer swords. I couldn’t use magic for the longest time so I took swords first.”

“Then we can finally find the dragon!” She shouts happily. I do a light karate chop on her head.

“Don’t shout about dragons here.”

“Sorry…”

“Now let's move. I see you have your supplies with you so we don’t need to wait.”

“Weren’t we supposed to talk?” Gil asks.

“Yes, but not here.” I say as I point to the forest. They both nod and we walk towards the forest.

Once we are away enough from the city we begin to talk again.

“Can I see that book you talked about?”

“Here.” Gil says as he handles it to me.

“Shouldn’t we be a little distrustful of her?” Wanda asks.

“She can kill us at any moment but she is being nice and asking for things.”

“You wouldn’t kill us, would you?”

“That depends on you.” I say as clearly as I can to her. I can see she cower a bit.

After handing me the book we sit on the ground as I begin to read it. It’s not a big book, around 100 pages or so by my count. The contents on the other hand are big.

“Do you two understand anything about what is in this book?” I ask after reading it.

“No.” Both of them respond with no sign of that being a lie.

“Good.” This book is a manual on how to mass produce that iron blimp. This is not some ancient thing, this is a recent thing. This manual is dated to only a year back and it’s not the first or second iteration of it which means that it’s probably still being developed by whoever is making this. Sadly there is nothing in the books that points to anyone.

Going by the instructions of the book, you only need 10 mages specialized in earth and fire magic with intermediary levels of mana to make what they call the forge, that is most likely a machine of some kind going by the few descriptions of it in this manual citing gears, pipes and production lines.

With the forge you only need fuel and metal to make the blimp. If that was all it would be all ok but in this book the process on how to imbue the blimp with magic is also detailed along with the use of the blimp.

I don’t understand how the runes themselves work but they came with descriptions. Various runes to reduce the weight of the blimp are put inside it and then charged. After that explosives runes are placed where there is space. Then the runes that link the space with each other are placed on opposite sides of the blimp and finally an invisibility rune is placed on the gondola. The one on the gondola is made in a way that the effect extends to almost anything it touches.

There are some annotations saying that from time to time, due to the large amount of runes in a single object, random spells are triggered once the blimp is fully charged. Teleportation is one of the spells cataloged here along with shrinking and hardening.

After that the part that makes me sweat bullets appeared. The blimps are not being made to carry something, they are giant bombs. There is a note explaining that the next part of development is how to control these damn things once they are in the air without the use of external forces like mages or animals and that it will be printed in another book.

Now I have to pass this information up. I can’t go around the world looking for factories.

At the very end of the book there is the manual of what to do in case of emergency depending on the situation. If the blimp can’t be recovered after it leaves the factory it is ‘to be sent in the direction of the Great Earth Dragon in the Sure-Death Forest and see if he can still deal with it’.

“You know, I probably just saved your lives. Also you two need some education, this isn’t hard to read.”

“Lady, not everyone has the time and money for it.” Gil says to me somewhat upset.

“Yeah, sorry. It probably came out the wrong way.” I say after thinking for a few moments how it came out.

“What did you mean to say then?”

“To make things short. That giant thing is a bomb. Various copies of it are being made and look like they are trying to kill the dragon you two are trying to find to deal with the metal object.”

“Didn’t the book say that we would have to find the dragon so it could deal with it?” Gil asks.

“No, it says that in case the thing can’t be recovered to send in the direction of the dragon to see if it is at least enough to deal some damage to the dragon. At least that is what is implied.”

“So you are saying that if we found the dragon we might have sent it to its death?” Wanda asks.

“That is a possibility.”

They both show signs of panic and relief at the same time.

“What do we do now?”

“First you two come with me. You need some form of compensation. This is a big deal. It might have been luck but there is a high possibility you two just found something that will save thousands upon thousands of lives.”

“Really?” They both ask surprised.

“Yes. Now come with me.” I say as I begin to walk towards the city. Soon enough we get back and I guide them to the mansion.

“You live here?” Wanda asks, surprised.

“I work for the governor and yes, I live here too.”

“I feel like we shouldn’t be here.” Gil says.

“Don’t worry.”

As we enter Monica greets us and guides them to the sofas where they are served some tea while I explain what I found to Sophia.

“This is bad.” She says to me.

“Do you think the Kingdom is doing it?”

“Not that I would know. Our kingdom doesn’ have anything against the earth dragons, specially the great one. If anything we owe him the protection of our southern border.”

“In any case, we need to speak with the people at the top right now.”

“I didn’t expect you to say it.” Sophia says, very surprised.

“If we can’t use the authorities in times like this, why do we pay taxes?”

“Alright, alright. I will send an emergency letter to them.”

“I will fly to Degrada so I can inform the adventurer’s guild. They need to have someone ready in the capital.”

“Why there?”

“If the King doesn't ignore the message, he will send someone to get us to have a discussion.”

“I hope you are right.”

“Me too.”

After that I quickly fly over to Degrada’s adventurer’s guild branch. Took a few tries but I managed to persuade the people there to send a magic letter to the capital.

As soon as I get back into the mansion there are a few royal mages waiting for me alongside Sophia.

“That was fast.” I say as soon as I enter.

“Weren't you expecting it?” Sophia says.

“Where is the book?” One of the mages hasty asks as he moves towards me.

“Slow down! It’s with me and it will continue to stay with me until we clear this situation.” I say as I show the book and point Ying at the mage who quickly backs off.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Gentlemen, please take us to The King. He is waiting for us.” Sophia says. Moments later the mages are opening the portal.

“Monica, please take care of the guests. I was going to ask if they could come but they are almost frozen just from the royal mages, I don’t think they would survive talking with the king.” I say.

“I will make sure they are taken care of. Be careful.” She says to us.

Not a second later the mages finish the spell and we all go to the castle. To my surprise we are already at the throne room. Didn’t think you could teleport here at all, even with permission.

“Greetings Majesty, Grand Mage.” Sophia says to the King and Maxoiliodas as she kneels down.

“Hello.” I say.

“You may stand up.” The King says to Sophia who follows the command.

“What is this about a bomb?” Maxoiliodas asks angrily.

“We need everyone here to start. There is at least one person who needs to arrive.”

“Who might that be?” The King asks.

“Someone from the adventurer’s guild. In case one of you is behind this I need someone else to take my side.”

“What if you are the culprit?” Maxoiliodas says.

“Maxy, I know you don’t like me but can you shut up for a few minutes?”

After that he just stares at me angrily for a few minutes until a man from the guild arrives.

“Greetings your majesty!” The man says as he kneels in front of the king. He is around 190 cm tall, bald with a thick white white beard. He is pure muscle. Going by his face he is at least 60 years old. His eyes are blue.

“Greetings Arcus. You may stand up.”

“What is this about dragons and flying bombs?” He asks.

“Before that. Who exactly are you?” I ask the man.

“I am one of the Great Guild Masters, Arcus.”

“Isn’t that the second highest position in the guild?”

“Yeah.” Sophia answers me.

“I guess you pass then.”

“What?” He asks me confused.

“This problem may be big enough that you would need to mobilise every adventurer possible.”

“Fill us in more detail. The letter didn’t have much detail.” The King says.

“Do you see this book?” I say as I show the book to everyone. “Does anyone know about it?”

Everyone shakes their head in denial. It seems they are not lying.

“What is this book exactly?” The King asks.

“It tells, in part, how to construct the flying metal object that guild asked me to investigate and explains its use, that it is a bomb to kill the Great Earth Dragon at least.”

“Give it to me!” Maxoililodas says as he extends his hand in my direction.

“No. This stays with me. You three will go around and gather information. We need to know if it is a group or another kingdom doing this.”

“What makes you think we will just do as you are told?”

“The King gets it.” I say as I point to the king who is deep in thought.

“As much as I hate to admit she has a point.” The King says after a few moments.

“May I ask how we are going to deal with something that we know pretty much nothing about?” Arcus asks.

“Let’s put things this way. If you want to deal with those things without any permanent damage to the involved as well the areas around it, you will need people that can both fly and are as strong as me in one way or another.”

“You say it with lots of confidence. What makes you think that these metal objects are as dangerous as you say?” Maxoiliodas adds.

“I can guarantee that if the one I encountered had fallen in degrada the city would have been wiped out just from the impact of it. Add the dozens, if not hundreds, of explosive runes put on it, who knows how much destruction it can cause. Also, there is the fact that as far I know, that thing may be an older model. This book implies that it wasn’t a finished product.”

“One more reason for you to give the book telling on how to construct those objects. That way we can analyse the runes.”

“What should we call those objects in the first place?” The King asks.

“The book refers to them as iron blimps.” I say in a way implying that I have no idea what blimps are.

“What even is a blimp?” Arcus asks.

“First, this is a problem of the kingdom. Unless you plan to assist in this matter as an individual and not as part of the Magic Institute you only have the right to listen.” I say to Maxoiliodas. “Second, blimp is probably just the name given to this object. I don’t think it refers to a class of objects like swords or boats.” I think it would be for the better if they figure out things on their own about blimps. I don’t care about being perceived as wrong in this particular matter.

“If I were to take everything you said to be true, magic is being used to harm one of the few beings we absolutely shouldn’t. This is also a problem for us.” Maxoiliodas angrily responds.

“I still don’t see why I should give this book to any of you.”

“Lucia, I stayed silent until now but I can’t anymore. Aren’t you being too selfish here?” Sophia says to me.

“No, I’m being careful. I know for a fact that once this leaves my hand, the one who has access to it will let research on the contents of the book start and soon enough they will try to actually make these things.”

“If they are as powerful as you say, I can think of a few monsters that would need that much firepower to be dealt with.” Arcus adds.

“Ok, let’s say I give this to any of you. What is in it for me? I can guarantee that a lot of people will die trying to make these blimps and if they know that it was me who found this book, I am pretty sure sooner or later someone will come after me thinking I removed something from the book or made it myself to kill people.”

“Girl, That’s quite a leap in logic you just had!” The King exclaims.

“Let me put things this way. I don’t trust any of you to own a city being wiped out of the map.” They aren’t able to deny it. No matter how loved you are, once the bodies start to pile up, especially the bodies of competent people, people will start to doubt your leadership.

“In times like that, a fall guy should be ready.” Arcus says after a few moments of silence.

“And here I was thinking you people had at least some honor.” Even Sophia is taken back.

“As much as I hate to admit, sometimes sacrifices are necessary.” The King adds.

“... Fuck this then. I said what I had to say. If you don’t mind I will be going back now, I have stuff to do. Also send around 5000 Kir along with Sophia. There are people who need to be rewarded for getting this information to you and don’t worry, I won’t steal a single coin.”

“Girl, I put up with you a lot but I am The King! I demand respect! This matter is something very serious. You are not just allowed to leave!” He shouts in a commanding voice. The guards stationed around the throne room even get a little scared.

“You can demand anything you want, I am leaving.” I say as I continue to walk towards the door that leads to the outside.

“Wait Lucia!” Sophia shouts.

“What?”

“You should give them the book.”

“...” I am out of words.

“I trust the King to do the right thing.” She says with absolute conviction.

After looking back at her. I walk towards the King stopping in front of him and begin to whisper something in his ear.

“You are lucky that she is here but remember. If someone comes after me because of this book, I will make sure you dying will be the least of your problems.” I whisper as I drop the book on his lap before walking towards Sophia.

The King stays in silence for a few seconds as I walk away. As I approach Sophia he signals someone and quickly, various people there, including mages, come to the throne room.

“Give 5000 Kir to the lady.” The King orders as he points at me. From the crowd, a man approaches me with a bag of coins and hands me a few coins that are equivalent to 5000 Kir.

The mages there also open a portal back to the mansion that I hastily use. I don’t want to deal with this more than I have. Sophia follows me quietly.

As soon as we are at the mansion the portal closes.

“Welcome back.” Monica says to us.

“Thanks.”

“Hi… Lucia, what was all that?” Sophia asks me somewhat angrily.

“If you are talking about the book, I tried to do what is best for everyone.”

“You disrespected the King. Also they need to know what we are dealing with to make countermeasures.”

“Shame they probably won’t make as many as they would if they didn’t have the book.”

“What do you mean?”

“In terms of technology, usually the best way to deal with it is itself. If they don’t find who is making those blimps and stop it, they will try to recreate them to deal with them.”

“I am not a scholar or an inventor but even I know that the people in contact with those things would try to recreate them once they observed it enough.”

“Yeah, but they wouldn’t know exactly how it works.”

“And what is the problem with them knowing?”

“What if there was a better way to make those things?”

“I don’t see your point.”

“I gave them a manual that explained how to make those things as they are now. Do you seriously believe that any of them will try a different process once they master this one?”

“... I don’t know.”

“Well, I bet they won’t. Any advancement that would come from dealing with those blimps is now heavily held back.”

Sophia seems to get my point and excuses herself to the office. I go sit with Wanda and Gil who seem to have taken a bath in our absence.

“Here, your prize.” I say as I put the coins I received on the table. They get stunned once they realize how much money is in front of them.

“Isn’t it a little too much?” Wanda asks.

“Yeah, 5000 Kir is a bit too much for us.” Gil adds.

“Look, you don’t have to use all the money now or just on yourself. With this amount of money you two can get education in your village or move somewhere else, I don’t know exactly much about your lives but I believe this money will give you two the opportunity to better yourselves or the area around you two if you use it wisely.”

“We also can’t walk around with all this money.” Gil explains.

“Put some of it in a bank. You two walked all the way here from your village. Walking to a bank to withdraw money from time to time will not kill you two.”

“You are right…” Wanda says.

“Want me to go with you two? There is one here.”

They both nod in agreement and we go to the bank.

The process doesn’t take very long as I am there to vouch for them. The only problem is that they are with their minds somewhere. At least they were able to follow instructions. After that we came back to the mansion where we spent the rest of the day.

Dinner was somewhat silent. Gil and Wanda were still with their minds somewhere else, almost not answering anything. Everyone else including me didn’t really feel like talking when those two were in that state. Mess even checked them to see if they were under some spell but they were clean. At night, as soon as they touched the bed, they blacked out.

“So this is how it feels to be rich.” Wanda says as we eat breakfast.

“Are you talking about the breakfast or your money?” I ask.

“Both.”

“Just so you know, most people in this city can eat just as well as us.” Sophia explains.

“It is as my lady says. Here we just have an abnormal number of mouths to feed so it looks like a banquet for those who don’t know.” Monica adds.

“Gil, let’s move here.” Wanda says to Gil with excitement.

“No.” He coldly responds.

“Why!?”

“You have your duties as I have mine back home. We did enough adventuring for a while. Also, your marriage is coming.”

“I wasn’t informed about that.”

“Pretty sure I told you not long ago.”

“I am rich now, do I even need to marry?”

“Wanda. May I ask why you don’t want to marry?” I ask, interrupting their conversation.

“I want to go on an adventure.” She happily answers me.

“And after that?”

“I can probably marry after that.”

“Ok, now answer me this. When will your adventure end?”

“... I don’t know.”

“Let’s say you go out into the world for a few years. How will you find a husband?”

“I don’t know…” She looks somewhat down now.

“Can you even protect yourself? You two don’t have any weapons. I guess you two took the safe roads to get here, didn’t you?”

“Ok, ok. I get your point. I am not dumb.” She says still with a little protest in her tone.

“Look. Later in life, if you take care of yourself, you will have time to do what you want. But you can only have kids while you are still young.” I don’t know much about the mortality hate among newborns around here but I know that unless you are a mage people tend to age faster here than in my old world.

“Alright, you win. I promised to marry that man anyway. I just thought that he could wait another year or two.”

“A lot can change in a year.”

Following that we finished eating and I guided the both of them to a carriage that could take them west.

After saying our goodbyes I went back to the mansion where I hoped that they didn’t notice that I never asked where their village actually is. Getting involved with me may cause some problems in the future so let’s make sure we are nothing more than acquaintances.

Back at the mansion I sent a notice via the girls to the people I am teaching that for a while I will not hold classes as I have matters that I need to take care of and they will require my full attention. I also informed them that I would check on them from time to time so they should continue to study among themselves.

What matter would that be? Preparing for when the knowledge on that book begins to go out of control.

“Mess, I need your help with something.” I say as I knock on his door.

“What?” he answers as he opens it.

“Can you make a small room in the backyard that can only be entered from above? It also has to be fireproof.”

“I don’t think there is anything fireproof against you,”

“Don’t worry, I will not ignite any fire there using my own magic.”

“Why do you need that anyway?”

“I feel like I will need to control fires not started by myself and I don’t have much experience with that. I need an area to train.”

“Ok, seems to be something acceptable.”

“Thanks.”

We then proceed to go to the backyard. There Mess starts to create some bricks and place them in a square. The walls will be 5 meters tall and their length will be 2 meters.

“Hey, can I ask why you were pushing that Girl with pink hair to marry so much?”

“I don’t know how much you remember about our old world but I know for a fact that if you let every woman be as free as they want, society will start to collapse.”

“Says probably the most free woman in the entire world.” He snarkily says.

“I am not saying that we should chain women down but if we don’t make sure to hammer into the heads of girls that their first priority in their adult life is to find a husband and have kids, the situation will become worse in this world than was in ours.”

“I don’t totally get what you are saying. How?”

“If the ‘kill all men’ crowd appears in this world because they were brainwashed into thinking that men aren’t necessary. One of them might actually go about doing what they preach. Magic is a greater equalizer than anything I could imagine in our old world. I am more powerful than a nuke for example. Imagine if I decided that men are no longer necessary.”

“I can see your point now.”

“There is also the fact that you need both a man and a woman to raise a child or it grows up wrong.”

“Too many parents is also a problem.” He is probably talking about the church.

“Yeah. Too many people taking the mantle of mother or father will erode the weight of that role in the mind of someone. I remember I once paid for the dinner of a kid and his mom, who was a prostitute, and he called me daddy. For him, a dad is the man who gives his mom money or food. I wish this was an isolated case but the amount of kids I know where in a similar situation was astounding.”

“You had a pretty dark life, didn’t you?”

“By normal standards? Yes. By the standards of the people in that type of society? Not really.”

“Do you think anything on the level of the stuff you saw is happening here in this world?”

“I can say with 100% certainty that it is. If anything it is probably worse here since we have different races and magic to fix what would normally be unfixable.”

“Like what?”

“Stabing something while you are having sex.”

“... Let’s stop here.”

“As you wish.”

We then continue making the room.