Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Chapter 116 - Why Not Fly?

"OOOH! RE... REYAN!... THE... DE...VICE...SHH... ISN'T... WORKING...PRO...PERLY...UP HERE... SHHH... SHHH... I CAN'T... SHH... HEAR YOU... SHH SHH..."

-What the fuck-

The connection was cut off before Reyan could finish his words.

"T-that fool!"

Reyan glared at his friend who was floating in the air and cursed him inwardly. 

'How dare that shithead-'

"What happened?"

Reyan jumped down from the rooftop where he was standing.

"I lost the connection."

"You must've conveyed my message to him."

Team leader Dains looked at his subordinate in the sky who was slowly descending to the ground.

"...."

'Why did that bastard talk back like that if he was going to do what I told him in the end?...'

Reyan nodded his head, not expressing his annoyance.

"Yes, sir. I did."

Team leader Dains took his eyes off of the boy in the sky and looked around. There were monster corpses piled up all around them. After examining the surroundings for a bit, the team leader started talking on his communication device.

"This area is cleared."

-Please head towards the city mall if you are free. We've received quite a lot of requests from there.

Team leader Dains walked towards one of the cars in the street. The driver of the car was sitting inside it, curled up from fear. The team leader signaled Reyan and pointed at the car with his chin.

"Weren't any forces sent there?"

"Sir, can you please open the window?"

The team leader glanced at Rayan who had understood his intention and walked away from them.

-Most of the units and teams are busy fighting the monsters in the city center. There are a lot of monsters there. And the rest are busy rescuing the people. You guys are the closest ones to that place.

"Do you think anything would remain of the city mall and the people in there until now? How could you leave that place undefeated?"

The team leader could see the driver of the car look between the card in Reyan's hand and his car with hesitation.

-Ah, I forgot to say. It seems that it happened to be a few agents there in the market today, so the situation isn't that bad. They could take care of most of the problem, but the number of monsters going there is increasing for some reason. They won't be able to last long by themselves anymore.

"Okay. I got it."

The team leader finished the conversation and walked towards the car again.

"We'll make sure to bring your car back to you safe and sound. There is no need for you to worry. Also, there are agents clearing this area so it is safe, just walk to the SMF's headquarters and you will be protected by their agents."

"A-Ah, yes..."

The man looked at his car with a dejected face as if he was forcefully being separated from the love of his life, and handed the key cars to Reyan.

The two people sat in the car as soon as they received the keys. 

"We go to the city mall."

"Yes, sir."

. . . . . . 

"You can kill monsters easily... but you don't know why?"

Kairen nodded his head.

He had already explained this to captain Neal, but she still asked such questions from time to time.

"Hmmm..."

The two of them had walked the streets in search of the remaining monsters and killed any that they saw. 

After staring at the last monster's ashes for a bit, the captain touched her communication tool and started talking.

"Reporting. The area is cleared. Please send agents to help the people. Waiting for the next orders."

A voice replied back to her almost immediately.

-There are a few monsters that had run away from the city center and are now moving towards the other areas of Celinden. Most of our forces are focused on protecting the city center so there aren't many agents that we can send after them. I count on you captain to take care of those monsters.

"Sure."

The captain said that and was about to move when she noticed the boy beside her was looking at her like a lost child.

"Ah, also tell team leader Dains that I'm taking his mage with me."

"...."

She could see the boy blink and look at the air after hearing those words.

'What now? You should be grateful of me, brat!'

-Alright. I've sent you the locations where the monsters were last detected.

Captain Neal checked the locations sent to her and looked around. 

"Isn't there a car or something that we can use?"

The vehicles around them were all broken and damaged. There wasn't one that they could use.

'Why can't I jump from the building's rooftops like those knights? Argh, so annoying.'

Kairen looked at the woman that kept sticking to him since earlier. 

'What's wrong with her?'

The atmosphere was really awkward for him. He didn't know how he was supposed to act and what he was supposed to say. He was wondering why this woman that acted as if he was just an annoying piece of shit was now following him. 

Kairen regretted not going to where the team leader was. The team leader was scary, but Kairen felt more comfortable being around a scary team leader than this woman.

Kairen wanted to run away, so he just said what came to his mind as a way out.

"Can't we just fly?"

"...."

Captain Neal jerked her head and glared at Kairen.

"Don't ever think of that."

"W-why not?"

Captain Neal folded her arms and sighed.

"Let's assume you used Float to move to the sky, what next? How are you going to move in the air?" 

Kairen thought for a moment about that question. It was his own question as well.

"Can't we just mix a few spells together?"

"Like what?"

"Um... If we first use Float to go up in the air... then use a weak gravity spell on ourselves to bind our bodies to earth with a low gravity force so that we wouldn't float aimlessly, then add some spells related to air to it... Like some air pressure spells to change the air pressure above and below and... Then add a barrier to protect us from the air damaging our bodies while moving around... Plus a weak push spell mixed with wind control... Can't we move in the air like that?"

"...."

The captain silently looked at Kairen.

Kairen lowered his head. Most of the things he said were random bullshit that came to his mind right now and he had never thought or tried them before. They were just some mixture of what he had learned at school and some sci-fi movies he had watched. 

Kairen had only tried to mix Float with a gravity spell once. Back then, he couldn't adjust the gravity spell too well and was forcefully pulled down from the air and nearly broke his nose, so he didn't try it anymore. But now, he was talking about adding a whole bunch of spells together.

'Please, don't ask anything more.'

He felt even more awkward and embarrassed after answering the captain.

"Hmm, something like that might work."

"....??!"

Kairen looked at the woman who was deep in thought.

'Seriously?'

"But please test out your theories sometime else, we are in the middle of a battle now."

"Yes..."

The captain seemed satisfied with his answer. She turned away from Karien and walked towards the first location while searching for a car to use. 

"Why are you so obsessed with flying anyway?"

Kairen looked at her back and followed behind. The answer to the captain's words was obvious. He liked to fly because it was cool, but he couldn't say something like that to her. He just started babbling nonsense again while being truly ashamed of himself.

"As a mage, I've realized that it is a great weakness of us that we can't move around as fast and as much as the others and that causes a lot of problems for us. Especially when we are fighting alongside knights, we are a great hindrance for them. So I thought we might be able to use magic to our benefit. There are some spells that help us move fast or increase our strength a little bit, but they are all low-level and weak ones that are not really useful in battle. So what if we could just be out of most of the enemies' reach? Mages can still hit the opponent even if they are in the air. I thought it would be nice to be able to avoid dangers that way."

"....."

The captain didn't say anything.

'Wasn't that enough? Did I say something wrong?'

Seeing the captain not reacting at all, Kairen closed his eyes and continued to talk, wiping his imaginary tears inwardly.

"I realize that what I've thought of will probably not work. The spells are hard to cast alone, at they will be harder to cast together. We can find other ways to do that. There are some ways to change the spells formula and mix a few spells into one. I'm not capable of doing such a thing, but there are always ones who can do so. There are also devices and gadgets that we can use. I can't say anything for sure because I'm just an inexperienced mage."

"....I see..."

The captain suddenly turned her head to look somewhere far distance.

"I understand now, team leader."

"...pardon?"

The captain stopped and pointed at a car in an alley with a smile.

"Let's go."

Flinch.

The smile made Kairen flinch.

"Y-yes."