“Well? Are you done yet?”

Yuri impatiently swung her legs back and forth while sitting, watching Ahab and Hikaru work on the old ship.

“Aye, we should be done sooner than i expected, good thing sonny here knew a thing or two about airships, If i didn’t know you’re older than my pappy, i woulda said yer pretty skilled for yer age!”

Breathing out in laughter, Ahab attached a lantern to the bottom of the ships balloon.

“I learned a thing or two while working as a certain bishops caretaker, i had to drive her around in a cheap airship that was already falling apart.”

Hikaru sighed and kept working on the ship, binding ropes from the balloon to the ship.

“I bet she ended up using all the money on new clothes instead of repairs right?”

Yuri guessed while looking up at Hikaru.

All Hikaru responded with was a sigh as he continued working.

“Seems you’ve had it rough sonny, aint nothing worse than a spoiled woman, specially one of high status, good thing yer not workin with her now at least” Ahab nodded understandingly.

“Hey are you talking or are you working! I want to get out of this hole before i starve to death”

Shouting at them from below, Yuri went back to lazing around while Hikaru and Ahab finished fixing up the old ship.

“She’s not this bishop person yer talkin about right?”

Ahab asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sometimes i wonder”

Hikaru smiled slightly and finished tying the ropes.

--

“Good day Captain..? Off duty?”

A man sitting in front of the gate leading inside a large white, wooden building, greeted an approaching figure.

“Yes, i just need to go pick up my spare uniform from my locker, the other one is being washed”

Helgi put the badge he was holding back in his pocket while answering the gate guard.

“Just make it quick alright, you know they don’t like it when i’m being lenient”

The gate was opened for Helgi, who took his time walking in.

“If i’m caught i’ll make sure to blame it on the other guy for letting me in, i’m sure he won’t mind”

Answering in a friendly manner, Helgi patted the guard on his shoulder.

“Be sure to do that, whenever that guy exchanges his shift with me, he always leaves me to sort out all the trouble he’s caused.”

The guard shook his head and closed the gate behind Helgi.

“Alright, will do!”

He waved behind him while walking into the building.

(People are the poorest security. Act friendly enough with a bit of proof, like a badge. And they will act like old friends.)

After that, all he had to do was confidently walk around to make sure it looked like he belonged there while looking for the changing room. Once there, he found a Captain's uniform, which fit perfectly with his badge that he now knew belonged to the captain rank.

Putting on the Captain’s uniform, he quickly and confidently walked out of the building, giving a polite greeting to the guard who nodded at him, pleased he was wearing the proper uniform he should be wearing. Unaware that it was stolen.

“Now..I have been to the guard headquarters..From what i saw inside, it’s doubtful they had anything there other than basic documents..No, from that woman’s room, i would assume the higher ranks keep their work at their homes. But i can’t look through every home in this city..which means. I need to go to where their work originates.”

Helgi took out the letter he had stolen earlier. On the back was the conveniently placed address of the sender. The high governmental building of the city, where all laws were set amongst whatever representatives this city had.

“Alright, should be easy enough with this disguise..”

Tipping forward his military captain’s hat so it covered his eyes, he walked to the governmental building while practicing his walk to be as military as possible.

Once at the building, his walk was brisk and free of any unnecessary movements. A true soldiers stride.

Heading inside the building, he knocked on the wooden table to get the attention of the secretary sitting there.

“Ah hello, how may i help you, sir...?” She answered distractedly while arranging papers.

“Yes, i received some orders via letter and wish to meet with my superior to clarify some things which were vague.”

Helgi nodded slightly at her while showing the closed letter.

“Oh, i see. May i see the letter to see who sent it?”

She asked.

“Unfortunately not, this letter is for my eyes only, surely you understand.”

Helgi showed her the broken seal on the letter, hoping that actually meant something.

“Oh! of course! I’m sorry sir, i didn’t mean to pry into classified matters! Go right ahead, the general should be sitting in his office right now”

The secretary gestured at the guards standing at each entrances to let Helgi through.

Nodding at her with a tip of his hat, Helgi headed deeper inside the building.

“Most likely, whatever i need is in this General’s office..In  that case.”

Without hesitating, Helgi entered the General’s office, showing his badge to the guards at the doors to let him through.

“Who might you be?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The General looked up from his work.

“I am Captain Helgi, sir. I am here due to unclear instructions, sir.”

Helgi saluted.

“Alright? What instructions, Captain.”

The General asked while putting aside his work.

“This one, sir.”

Helgi handed him the letter.

“Ah, indeed. So what was unclear to you?”

Gesturing at the seat in front of his desk for Helgi to sit down, The General read through the letter.

“What reason do we have to ban the production of these sturdier ships, sir?”

“You should have been well informed of the reason upon your approval of increase in rank to Captain. Isn’t that right, Captain Tiffany.”

The general narrowed his eyes at Helgi while putting down the letter.

Helgi noticed the letter did indeed specify the receiver's name although it was at the bottom in small difficult to see text.

“Sir…?” Helgi feigned ignorance.

“I don’t know who you are or how you managed to get this letter or uniform, but the punishment you will get for the crime of impersonating a high ranking guard and stealing classified information is quite..severe.”

The General was about to call for the guards outside.

“No, sir! I really am a Captain! Please here is my proof!”

Helgi fished out a closed letter from inside his pocket and handed it to the General.

“Hm..? You do? Let’s see…”

Opening up the letter, The General took out a thin card of bronze metal which had something written on it.

“What is this..!? Metal!? What manner of heresy is-”

ZAAAP

The metal card lit up with sparks in his hands. Shocking him into unconsciousness.

Helgi was immediately at his side, holding him up and gently seating him on his chair to avoid him falling over and creating unnecessary noise.

“Well, i tried.”

Helgi shrugged.

“I hope Yuri’s bad luck isn’t rubbing off on me..Usually it goes smoother for me..”

Searching through the General’s desk, Helgi discovered a locked drawer, the locks of which were no match for someone like Helgi who was well versed in all kinds of locks from ancient stone to digital.

Reading the thick slabs of documents inside, he slowly realised something.

“...This is bad. This is seriously bad. Knowing Yuri she’s going to walk right into that. I have to go warn her..! I have to find her first!”

--

A proud large ship, robust enough that it could ram into a wall and still be fine, flew through the air, supported by a big balloon above it.

It was slow, but it moved past the floating islands with a display of strength that seemed to say it would continue going straight even if one of the islands flew in it’s path.

“Muahaha! With this we can surely go down to the beast and get its treasures! After that we can ram through the entire city with it and find the relic in the rubble before flying off and away! This will be the easiest heist ever!”

Yuri stood at the front of the ship, her fist clenched in front of her, laughing and yelling at the wind blowing past her, moving her hair behind her like a cape.

“What was that about destroying the city..!?”

Ahab looking over from his position in front of the steering wheel, looked worriedly at Hikaru.

“Oh don’t worry about that, She is merely joking.”

Hikaru said while adjusting the lanterns providing the balloon with hot air.

“Oh, alright then”

Ahab nodded and continued to steer the ship.

(...I hope she is at the very least. Sigh..when did my life change from an honourable knight who saves lives, to that of a thief leaving destruction wherever i go..)

Sighing loudly, Hikaru shook his head to make those thoughts disappear and concentrated on his task.

“Hm? Ahab what’s that over there? More islands?”

Yuri pointed towards several dots in the distance, slowly growing larger.

“Islands? That ain’t possible, i’ve memorised all the islands flight path over the years, ain’t none of dem supposed to be here, that many especially”

Squinting and looking at the dots, Ahab blinked, cursing his old age and diminishing eye sight.

“Ack Back in mah day my eyes were like a hawks..look round there should be a handy telescope around somewhere. Rare things them. Since glass is forbidden as it’s part of the earth. Our government provides one’s with frozen bubbles of water, instead of yer fanceh glass, so might be slightly different to what yer used to”

“Ah, found it!”

She eventually found the telescope a small thing made of wood, and incredibly cold to the touch.  Likely due to its lenses being made of ice instead of glass.

Shrugging, Yuri put it against her eye and looked at the dots in the distance.

“Hm..They seem to be..ships? Heading towards us..their balloons are red if that means anything..?”

She commented her sightings to the rest.

“Red balloons..? Those be the government's ships, what’re they wanting in these parts, other than my cave there’s nothin of value”

Wondering this, Ahab steered his ship to the side, wanting to avoid a collision with the ships.

“Ah, now they seem to be moving faster..hmm oh! There’s even more of them! all around us!”

Yuri was spinning around with the telescope against her eye, looking in all directions.

“What!? That means..they be coming for us! Why!?”

Ahab was flabbergasted, to send this many ships must mean it was something serious.

“Why don’t we ask them ourselves.”

Hikaru nodded toward an island they were closely passing by, appearing from behind it, was a small airship, also equipped with a red balloon.

“You are surrounded. Surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed.”

One of the guards aboard the ship spoke loudly to them, his hand resting on his sword of sharp frozen paper.

“This was a planned ambush..?” Yuri was confused. Although she was sure other cities had plenty of reasons to arrest her, she was unsure why this one specifically would want to.

“You are accused of charges of theft. Illegal harbouring of weapons. And planned attack upon governmental property. Surrender now.”

The guard spoke up again, holding a paper which he was reading from.

“What are you talking about, we never did any of that!!”

Yuri interjected with an upset tone.

(...But you did just say you wanted to ram the city..and we do carry weapons which might be illegal here..and we are more than qualified for being accused of theft..)

Usually Hikaru would try and play along with Yuri’s lies. But her claim this time was so absurdly false that he simply chose to not say anything.

“You are accused of stealing the boat you are currently in. It was to be government property as assured by its maker. We have an officially signed contract. I can see an illegal sword on one of you right now. And you are currently heading towards the city in a ship strong enough to fly through it unhindered, which is illegal due to how dangerous that is. You are hereby under arrest.”

The guard declared, while the ships surrounding them were finally close enough to see properly.

They could not escape, surrounded from every direction, with no ground to run on, and no magic to rely on. Even with Hikaru’s superb ability at fighting, it would be difficult to fight in mid air while also protecting two people. They were caught.

--

“Okay..! Phew..! I made it!”

Helgi was breathing hard. He had a hard time finding any kind of usable ship. But was able to get his hands on a small one man flying ship, designed for quick short distance travel.

It looked similar to a bicycle with a big balloon floating above it, and wings instead of wheels.

It got its speed from being powered by the riders own legs. They had to pedal in order to make the wings flap, creating small gusts of wind that propelled the craft forward.

And that was what Helgi had been doing. Furiously pedalling his floating bike like his life depended on it. Because although his life didn’t. Someone else's life, which was dear to him, was.

He finally made it to a small floating island where he landed his bike and quickly ran to the edge to look for Yuri and the ship.

“Damn it, it was supposed to be here according to the soldier’s plans! The reports said they had a ship and would be passing here..”

Looking around he saw it, a mass of red ballooned ships were flocking around a single space in the air.

In the middle of which was a big airship, with three figures standing in it.

“I’m too late..! I couldn’t get this information to them in time..! DAMN IT! I need to make an opening for them..! But they’re so far away.. i won’t make it in time.this damn thing is too slow!”

He kicked the bike as hard as he could, making a piece of it fall off.

“Damn, how do i even! huh..?”

Looking down at the piece that had fallen down, he discovered it to be some sort of rubber.

Pulling on it, he found it to be incredibly stretchy and incredibly tough. Way more than anything this size should be.

“...Since they had no metals to work with..they ended up advancing the level of creations like this..since rubber is plentiful here. That is..good news for me.”

Breaking off a branch of a nearby tree. Helgi tied the rubber to it, creating a simple sling shot.

He took the sling shot and broke the handle, creating a sharp piece of wood which he thrust into the ground.

Taking a small metal card from his pocket, he put it against the rubber.

“This better hit..haven’t used a slingshot since i was a kid..”

Crouching down, he grabbed hold of the rubber and began walking back while pulling on the rubber with as much strength as he could.

Until the rubber from the slingshot that was stuck into the ground was stretched to 10 meters long.

“Now..I just..aim...it...correctly…”

He began slowly adjusting the position in which he was pulling.

“Only..good thing..about this..is there’s no wind..unless you’re moving..in this place..surrounded by walls..”

He hands were shaking, he was at his limit, his muscles were aching.

“Just..a bit..more..and..”

He was about to take a deep breath and adjust the rubber one last time, when his fingers slipped due to the sweat. Releasing the amassed force in the rubber, shooting the metal card faster than a bullet. Whirling through the air towards its target.

“NO!!!”

Unfortunately, due to his hand slipping. Helgi had absolutely no idea what it’s target was going to be, friendly or foe.

It flew away from Helgi faster than he could perceive, leaving him watching the sky for it with alarmed horrified eyes.