Chapter 61: The Broken Castle and the Royal Guard

“Ooh, I can fly! I can fly!” “We did it! We can fly again!”

The knights were soaring through the sky, crying out in joy.

Having repaired the knight brigade’s wings, we were now heading toward the Sky Castle, where their ruler, the Sky King, lives.

“Amazing! Sir Rex, you can truly fly without any wings!” Knight Commander Karm exclaimed in shock as we took to the air using flight magic.

“Are you and your companions also using some kind of magic item?”

“No, we’re just using flight magic.”

“Flight magic!? You mean… the lost magic?!”

While I was fixing everyone’s wings, Karm and his men had told us all sorts of things. They were a knight brigade serving a king known as the Sky King, and they lived in a place called the Sky Castle. Apparently, their main duty was to protect the sky islands from flying monsters.

“But I have to say, these repaired wings are magnificent! Compared to before, they move exactly how I want them to. It’s incredible!”

“And our speed has increased dramatically, Commander!”

The knights were overjoyed with the performance of the wings I’d repaired.

“Well, it looked like you’d been using them forever without any maintenance. While I was fixing them, I also serviced them and replaced the old mechanisms with new ones. Their performance should be up by about 30%.”

“Thirty percent!? That’s incredible!”

“They sure changed their tune the second their wings were fixed.”

Liriela seemed exasperated by the knights who were giddy about their repaired wings.

“Are you sure it was okay to fix them? And to make them even better?” Her eyes clearly said I’d overdone it.

“No, this is actually for the best,” I whispered quietly to Liriela.

“The most important thing is the fact that I was able to repair their magic items.”

“The fact that you could fix them?” Liriela tilted her head, frowning.

“Exactly. They can’t fix them, but I can.”

“…Ah! I get it.” Liriela’s voice was sharp with understanding. “If they know you’re the only one who can fix their magic items, they can’t make a move against you so easily.”

I nodded with a bright smile. Exactly. If they knew I could repair their magic items, they couldn’t take a hostile stance against us. It means that even if we could fight all-out, they would always have to hold back.

If we end up fighting the Sky People in the future, this will be a huge advantage. And even if we don’t, it’s a powerful bargaining chip.

“Sir Rex, our castle is in sight!”

A knight in the lead pointed, and sure enough, I could see the shadow of a structure. But… its appearance…

“That’s… a castle?”

Seeing it, I had to question the knight’s words.

“Huh? That’s it?” Liriela, seeing the same thing, was just as confused.

“That looks less like a castle and more like… a ruin?”

That’s right. What lay ahead of us was a large, half-destroyed building.

“Or maybe part of a fortress?”

Yes, it looked more like a fortress built to defend a key location than a castle.

“That is the castle where our king resides! The Sky Castle!” the knights declared proudly. It seemed it really was a castle after all.

“That’s… a castle, huh.”

◆

“It looks like they’re just using a broken fortress after some emergency repairs.”

As we got closer, the details of the Sky Castle became clearer. It really was a half-collapsed fortress being reused. The crumbled sections had been patched up with loose stone and salvaged building materials. It looked like an emergency repair job from a warzone.

“Sir Rex, Lady Liriela, please land in the courtyard you see there.”

Following Karm’s lead, we descended into the courtyard. Just then, more winged knights, just like Karm’s men, emerged from the castle.

“Oh, Commander Karm! Were you able to capture the illegal trespassers!?”

The one who spoke to Karm was a knight wearing armor more ornate than the others. Looking closely, all the knights who came from the castle were wearing decorative armor. Probably the Royal Guard.

“Royal Guard Captain, about that…”

Called it. Royal Guard. Karm averted his gaze from the Royal Guard Captain and glanced over at us.

“Hoh, so these are the insolent trespassers. Hmph. They have the vulgar faces I expected.”

What exactly is a “vulgar face”? I wondered.

“Ah, well, about that…” Karm stammered. I wondered how he was going to explain us. This should be fun.

“What is it, Commander Karm?”

“Well, you see… he is… yes, he is a traveling magic item engineer!”

“A what!?” The Royal Guard Captain looked at Karm like he’d lost his mind.

“No, it’s true! You’re aware that our wings have been having performance issues from years of overuse, yes? But, after he repaired our wings, the problem was solved!”

“Repaired!? You showed the sacred wings you borrowed from His Majesty to some suspicious person, a nobody from who-knows-where!?”

“Urk! W-well, that’s… right! During our last sortie, my men’s wings malfunctioned badly! It was so bad, it was clear they’d be useless soon!”

“…” The Royal Guard Captain’s brow furrowed. He looked less “half-convinced” and more “fully-unconvinced.”

“So, I had an idea! I told him, ‘If you can really fix them, then prove it! If you succeed, I’ll trust you!’ And as a result, he not only fixed them perfectly, but their performance is now among the best in our entire brigade!”

Karm looked behind him, and one of his subordinates flew up, demonstrating high-speed flight and complex aerial maneuvers.

“Look! I doubt there are any wings left, not just in my brigade but in your Royal Guard, that can move like that!”

Karm’s words had a serious, compelling ring to them.

“Incredible… It’s hard to believe, but that’s certainly a world of difference in movement.”

The Royal Guard Captain’s gaze shifted from Karm to me.

“I understand. I’ll accept that you are a magic item engineer. But for what purpose did you come to our country? I’ll have you explain your reasons.”

Here, I repeated the reason I’d given so many times before.

“We came to research the ancient Sky Continent. We heard from the Sky People we met on these islands that this place is a remnant of that continent. We want to find someone who knows the details, who can tell us why it happened.”

Yep. The leadership of this country is highly likely to have that information. To be honest, I don’t want to get involved with their nation, but an entire continent vanishing is… more than a little concerning. Hopefully, I can trade these magic item repairs for some information.

“The Sky Continent from the fairy tales, eh? I remember hearing those stories as a child. But what does that have to do with you being a magic item engineer?”

Well, nothing. Besides, I’m not a magic item engineer. If anything, I was on the magic item development side.

“Nothing, really. We just wanted to see the Sky Continent.”

“Did you think such a vague reason would be accepted!? You are suspicious! Seize them, and we will make them spit out the real reason!”

“W-Wait, Captain! They possess a useful skill! Don’t be so rough!”

The Royal Guard Captain snorted at Karm’s plea.

“How soft. In the first place, even if he’s a useful engineer, what were you thinking, bringing him here without restraints!? If he’s so ‘useful,’ then we’ll just throw him in a cell, chain him up, and make sure he can’t escape!”

The Captain waved his hand, and the surrounding Royal Guards closed in.

“Seize them!”

“””Sir!”””

The Royal Guards drew their swords and rushed us. Honestly, what a self-centered thing to say.

“It’s okay to take them down, right?” Liriela asked, readying her spear.

“Yep. Even if you injure them badly, I’ll just heal them. No need to hold back.”

“Got it.”

That’s right. We tried to be friendly, but they responded by saying they’d lock us in a cell and force us to obey. Yep, no need to hold back at all. I think I’ll make them suffer… just a little. No, a lot.

“Hmph! You intend to defy us? We are the Royal Guard, the chosen knights! The strongest in the Holy Sky Kingdom, protectors of His Majesty!”

“Pfft!”

Damn it. I laughed out loud at that embarrassing name again.

“You bastard! How dare you insult us!”

Sorry. But that name has the distinct feel of an era about two cycles out of date. Ah, two cycles before my previous life, that is.

“Hah!”

The Royal Guards’ swords, glowing with light, slashed at us. Looks like their swords are magic items, too.

“Whoops.”

I turned my body, dodging the blade, and sliced the guard’s sword off at its base.

“Impossible!? My sword!?”

The guard stared in shock. But I’m not done. I cut the wings off the guards’ backs, then severed the joints on their armor, stripping them naked. For a finishing touch, I cut the falling, unsupported armor in half.

“Uwaaah, my wiiiiings!?” “M-My armooooor!?”

The guards, now stripped of their equipment, shrieked.

“Spark Cloud!!”

“””Gaaaaaaah!?”””

The bodies of the now-unequipped guards were swallowed by a small thundercloud. The instant the lightning flashed, they were all electrocuted and collapsed.

“Sei!”

Liriela used her spear’s reach to keep the knights at bay, thrusting into their thighs to immobilize them. Her fighting style is disciplined—focusing on robbing the enemy of mobility. It’s plain, but solid.

The Royal Guards, hindered by their fallen comrades, couldn’t move effectively. One, growing impatient, tried to use his wings to attack from above. This was exactly what Liriela was waiting for. She shot up with her own flight magic, sliced his wings off, and sent him tumbling to the ground.

“Tei!”

I dove into the middle of the guards, weaving between them, slashing with my sword and blasting them with magic.

“You bastard!” “Wait, don’t attack recklessly! You’ll hit our own men!”

Just as I thought. Like the other knights, these Royal Guards have very little actual combat experience. The moment it turned into a chaotic melee, their movements fell apart. Well, their movements were sloppy even before it became a melee. Have they just been guarding the king in the castle all this time, with no real opportunities to fight?

“Damn it, what are you doing! It’s only two people!” the Royal Guard Captain roared. But his men couldn’t keep up with our movements, which were enhanced by Body-Strengthening magic. Wait… can these guys not even use Body-Strengthening magic? Come to think of it, they couldn’t use flight magic either. Their whole fighting style feels… unrefined. If they’re descendants of the knights from the Sky Continent, I’d expect their combat techniques to have been passed down… Is this also related to the collapse of the Sky Continent that I don’t know about?

In the end, it took only a few minutes to wipe out the entire Royal Guard.

“Y-You basstaaaaards!!”

The Royal Guard Captain raised his sword and charged me. But an attack fueled by blind rage is easy to dodge. I backstepped away from the blow. He overextended, slamming his sword into the ground. I sliced it in two, and for good measure, cut the wings clean off his back.

“M-My swoooooord!?”

“Not just your sword.”

I pointed to the severed wings at his feet. The Captain looked at the wings, then craned his neck, trying to see the wings that should have been on his back. He found nothing. He began patting his back frantically, searching for them. His hands touched the spot between his shoulder blades… and felt the severed roots of his wings.

“M-My… wings…”

The Captain’s face went deathly pale, and he collapsed to his knees.

“So, Mr. Royal Guard Captain.”

I smiled at the kneeling man.

“How about some magic item repairs?”

“…”

The pale-faced Captain looked at Karm. Karm offered him a very gentle, kind smile. The Royal Guard Captain, seeming to understand everything, let his shoulders slump in defeat. His shoulders trembled, and he finally spoke.

“…Pl… Please.”