3.7

I believe I can fly, maybe

Starting later and also physically inferior, Hiro took quite some time to reach Owain, who was now outside of town. By then, he had missed most of the scene. Still, he could catch glimpse of the doctor giving the young man some sort of container.

Then his concentration was yanked away by the sound of barking aimed straight at him. Hiro turned to the side to find the little Cerberus yapping, or more like only it’s middle head. The left was once again distracted by something maybe just the feeling of wind while the right head was looking on silently.

The creature jumped around him and ended up falling onto its heads. Then, it took great effort for the thing to stand up again. The middle head looked at Hiro in shame and then proceeds to turn away only to hit the left head turning the opposite direction.

After some growling and coordination, the Cerberus slumped away not before falling down once again in the distance.

Momo-chan: [That poor thing can’t even walk properly]

It certainly reminded Hiro of the beast he had faced, that creature could hardly breath.

By the time the young man turned back to what he came here for, Owain was already behind him, along with Suiren of course.

“Oh, Hiro, what are you doing here?”

“I just want to see if you are alright or not”

“Ah, thanks for that”

Hearing those genuine words of appreciation hit slightly since Hiro was actually only here out of curiosity.

“So how did it go?”

“It went… well I guess. I still couldn’t look at Victor without wanting to spit in his face but at least I managed to give him the invitation”

Owain looked rather down about that, the young man wanted a better result, one where he could be welcoming. Nevertheless, his usual joyfulness returns as he held up the container.

“Still, for Victor to give me this, I am grateful”

“What is that?”

“It’s just… something for conception” Owain seemed embarrassed “Actually Victor did tell me you won’t know of it”

“… I don’t know how to feel about that”

“This potion allows us to be able to conceive a child”

“Wait what, say that again?”

“Well… I don’t know how it is like back in Japan but here, we are all born sterilised. This potion is supplied for married couple to grant them the ability to conceive a baby. A child of our own!”

“Who gives this out?”

“The capital, you have to send in a formal request for this and if they deem you are capable to raise a kid, they will send this. Although due to the blackout, we didn’t expect to receive one so soon. Victor brought it all the way here for us… for Caron”

There was undoubtedly appreciation in Owain’s voice. Nevertheless, the young man was still conflicted as his hatred for the Heretic still went on strong.

“Anyway, let’s go back to the workshop, there is still something I want to show you!”

“Alright”

Hiro answered tiredly, it took him most of his strength to dash here. The young man could even hear Momo-chan laughter at this pathetic state he was in. Oh well, at least the walk back would be a leisure one.

On the way, they encountered Willow, who was undoubtedly looking for her Herald. It seemed like she was fresh out of the shower but the girl still wore the same attire.

“Ah, Herald, I had been looking for you! Are you alright! Did Victor do anything to you!”

“I’m fine, Willow”

Hiro reassured the girl and gave her a pat on the head.

Momo-chan: [You did that again!]

Hiro: {I don’t know, it just happened!]

Luckily, the gesture worked as it was intended and Willow did simmer down. The three returned to the workshop where she marvelled at the garden.

“So this is what Caron was talking about”

Meanwhile, Owain was trying to open a panel on the floor but it was stuck in place. Hiro decided to help him. The two grunted and pulled the handle with all of their might but it wasn’t enough.

After Willow stopped admiring the herb garden the two men had a go at the handle three times total.

“What are you doing, He… Hiro?”

“Um, we are just trying to get this open but it is a bit stuck”

“I can help!”

She merrily went next to the panel. Hiro, despite being exhausted, still decided to give her a hand. On the other hand, Owain was completely spent.

The young man didn’t expect anything, especially since the effort he could muster now was negligible. But to his surprise, Willow, all by herself, yanked the panel opens. Hiro, still holding onto the handle, fell back was caught by Suiren standing behind him. Come to think of it, she could have done it as well.

Owain ran up to the open compartment with glee. The young man tried to pull something up but with his state, that proved to be difficult. Once again, Willow gave a hand and in a blink of an eye, a strange backpack was brought up.

“This is what I wanted to show you!” Announced Owain with great pride.

“What is that?”

A wooden box with leather straps fastening around it for wearing on the back, the thing had two holes in the bottom. Owain also brought up another smaller box with strap but this one had no feature on it.

“This is what I call a jetpack!”

“You can fly with it?”

“Yes, that’s the purpose! So Japan also has this device”

“No, it’s more of a concept, I don’t think we have anything functional yet”

“I see”

Willow looked at bulky thing with great amusement. The concept of jetpack was foreign to her.

“How does this… thing help you fly exactly” The girl asked a question Owain was more than willing to answer.

“Well, this big box here you wear on your back. I have made it so that air can be compressed and shoot out of these holes with enough force to propel you up! There is actually another part still under there, it’s a panel you wear behind your hip to prevent the air from damaging your backside!”

Hiro held up the smaller box which was pretty heavy “Then what about this one?”

“Oh, that you wear in the front as a counter weight so you won’t spin around”

Willow opened the top of the jetpack to find an incredibly complex machine made out of wood and leather. The use of metal was heavily sanctioned after all. Pipes made out of leather lined the jetpack coming from a bag in the middle. The wooden compartments built to fit with one another perfectly without the use of nails and screws. This reminded Hiro of home.

“Does this ‘jetpack’ even work?”

“Don’t worry, princess, it will! Let me show you!”

The girl was slightly irked when she heard that word again but she knew that unlike the others, the young man used it without any intention. The trio went outside where Owain put on the awkward device. Which included a wooden corset of sort, probably the panel he was talking about earlier.

As he tightened the strap, Hiro and Willow waited in bated breath.

“I’m taking off!”

With just those words, air shot out of the hole and Owain started to float above the ground.

“It’s actually work!”

Momo-chan: [That stupid looking thing work!]

Both Willow and Momo-chan were surprised and marvelled at the jetpack. Hiro, however, remained silent. He shared their enthusiasm at first but after a short headache which arrived and went away in an instant, his excitement dissipated. Now, the young man somehow knew that this wouldn’t work.

And his ‘hunch’ proved correct, after trudging above ground for a bit, Owain had to descend. The height he reached was only twice his height.

“As you can see, it works but not as good as I intend it to be yet”

“So how high do want to reach” Asked an enthusiastic Willow.

“I want to reach all the up there” Owain pointed up to the sky “I want to fly among the clouds and touch the sky! It’s been my life-long dream!”

For a moment there, the young man was lost as he looked up to the infinite blue. He eventually returned to the ground though with a hint of disappointment.

“Still, this is the best I can muster”

“If you have the blueprint, I can take it to Vaswani Academy, I am sure that they can fine tune this for you”

“Thank you for the offer princess, but I want to reach my goal with my own design. As a graduate from Vaswani, I know that this could work. The only problem is that I couldn’t get a powerful enough gem to charge it with”

“I thought that is your job?” Asked Hiro.

“Certainly, but the amount of power required is far higher than what I can muster. Beside, the quality of the gem itself affect how much power one can hold. And in here, we just don’t have one that is good enough”

Hearing that, Willow reached inside her pocket and pulled out a glistening red gem.

“How about this?” The girl asked innocently.

“This… this… Only the Divine Vaswani herself could make something like this!”

“That’s right, she gave me this one. Would this gem be enough?”

“Of course, it is more than enough! But I can’t take something like this, this is way outside our requisition quota”

“There is no need for that, this gem was given for me for whatever purpose I deem fit. And I am willing to lend it to you as long as it is returned after spent”

Owain hesitated for a moment, eventually he reached out for the item.

“Thank you, princess”

“I am glad to help”

As the young man taken the gem into his hand, Willow could feel a sense of pride surging within her. Here she was, helping out a citizen of hers achieving his dream. The girl felt like she had achieved something meaningful.

Hiro could hear Owain muttered.

“After so long… just like this…”

The young man had fine tuned his design to its most efficient iteration possible and was stuck there for more than two years. Now, the end was in his hand, just like that, out of the blue. There was a strange sense of disappointment in him but it was soon overwhelmed by the thought that his long journey, finally over.

“Thank you… princess”

Owain repeated with shaken voice and put the gem away.

At that moment, a townsperson ran toward them in a hurry. It was the tavern owner, who had arrived with something he could barely contained.

“The Edict, an Edict is going to be read!”

“What!” Both Owain and Willow replied in surprise.

“Come on, it will be read soon!”

The tavern owner took off and the two followed him without fail. Hiro, who was still in the dark, chased after them anyway.

___

“Hah, hah…. hah…”

Hiro was completely out of breath, too much running for one day. Suddenly, Suiren lifted him up into her arms and continued on carrying him. The young man wanted to object but he was too tired to even walk by himself.

They eventually reached the outskirt of town where Owain was meeting with Victor earlier. There was already a crowd gathering but they all stood aside for the Herald, who was being carried.

Hiro shamefully reached the front row where he found Willow and his fellow summoned, Malcolm and Conrad as well. The youth looked at him and smirked, turning away amused.

“It’s alright, you can put me down now”

The young man was put down, his legs still shaking but it would hold.

In front of them was Victor who was standing in front of a marked plot of land. Next to his legs was the Cerberus which was also excited for what about to commence.

The doctor opened a scroll and announce to the empty plain in front of him.

“As the Great Divine Agrinya decree”

The moment Victor finished those words, the ground shuddered in response. The Heretic continued to chant in a language that Hiro couldn’t comprehend.

Clouds started to gather and darkened the sky. There was something running beneath the earth, slithering across the land. At sea, the waves raged on, stronger than ever and yet it was held back by an invisible force before invading the land.

Rain fell from the sky to the land in front of Victor and sprouts appear. They grew rapidly into mighty trees and produced a variety of unidentified fruits. As soon as these bounties were ripe, Victor stopped chanting and the world returned to how it was.

It was an unbelievable display, at least to the summoned. Willow explained.

“That was an Edict. Words of a Divine so powerful it can bend the world to their will”

“What does this particular one does” Malcolm asked, tipping the hat down to hide his eyes.

“It brought on these trees which can only be created by the Divine. Due to the blackout, there is no way we to keep track of food consumption here so there are invoked as an emergency supply. I believe this Edict also change the tide of the sea to brought in more catches for the fishermen”

“Just like that huh”

The youth commented for all of the summoned as they looked on. The once empty lot was now a small lush jungle. All in less than a minute, brought forth by mere words.