Chapter 147 – Friendly Interrogation

    “Not at all,” Emily replies, internally casting a first circle earth spell to raise a small mound of rock in the shape of a chair before sitting back into it. “Would you like a seat?”

    Colette barely reacts to Emily’s casual silent casting and calmly nods.

    She’s either not surprised, or very good at hiding her reactions.

    Emily snaps her fingers, forming a small brown magic circle above them that melts into the floor, raising a second earthen throne behind Colette.

    “Thank you,” she says, sitting down and pulling a pen from her skirt. “Right, let’s start by confirming the boring details. Your current name is Emily Coldstone. Correct?”

    “Yes.”

    “Have you ever gone by any other names or aliases?”

    “No.”

    “Perfect,” Colette nods, tearing her eyes away from carefully inspecting Emily’s face and looking down as she jots something down. “Next, where were you born?”

    “Eimdon City.”

    “When?”

    “The seventh day of the seventh month of the year four hundred and ninety-six in the Modo calendar.”

    “You’re an incredible liar, I’ll give you that,” Colette says without batting an eye. “But I’m going to need you to be honest with me here. If my report isn’t accurate, it will only cause you problems when it’s checked at headquarters.”

    “But I am though,” Emily says innocently, not a single muscle on her face moving out of place as she projects an image of clear honesty.

    I’m telling the truth here! Besides, even if I wasn’t, it’s been a while since a third circle mage would be able to tell that by looking at me.

    “So, you expect me to believe that you’re a third circle mage at seventeen?”

    “Yes.”

    “Haaa,” Colette lets out a sigh, raising one of her hands to rub her brow as it creases in frustration. “Whatever, this is a problem for whoever has to verify your account, not me. Sure, you’re a seventeen-year-old prodigy.”

    She shakes her head and continues writing in her notes before looking back at Emily again with a resigned expression, the bags beneath her eyes seeming to stretch even longer.

    “Next then. Have you formally studied magic, and if so, where?”

    “I studied in Modo’s Covenant for a little over a year and a half.”

    Colette writes down her answer without any further comment this time, not even bothering to look up as she continues.

    “Have you ever lived in Denros?”

    “No.”

    “Have you ever had any contact with anyone from Denros?”

    “Still, no.”

    The tired soldier slowly nods her head as if the answers were expected, before finally glancing up again as she makes a request.

    “Okay, can you give me a brief explanation for why you’re leaving the Modo Kingdom please?”

    “Sure,” Emily says with a nod, taking a moment to consider exactly what to give away before starting. “I was a commoner who knew nothing of magic, but I self-awakened on the twenty-sixth day of the sixth month of the year five hundred and twelve, and the Mandrago family, who controlled Eimdon at the time, found me. They killed my father and attempted to use mental magic to enslave me before sending me to train in The Covenant.”

    Colette’s eye twitches as Emily mentions self-awakening, but any of her mistrust is pushed to the back of the mind the moment mental magic is mentioned. Her expression crumples in anger, and she voices her discontent the moment Emily pauses.

    “Scum,” she practically spits before taking a breath and quickly recomposing herself. “Sorry about that.”

    “It’s fine.” Emily waves off her apology and continues. “Their mental magic didn’t work properly, but I went along with them and stayed at The Covenant to train, and I quickly rose to third circle before returning to my home city. However, when I returned, I found out that the Mandrago scum, as you so accurately put it, had already killed my sister. So, I wiped out their family and fled.”

    Colette’s expression shifts to one of sympathy as she places her right palm on her chest and lowers her eyes to the ground.

    “I’m sorry for your loss. May her soul return to Ulea’s embrace.”

    Emily nods, remaining expressionless and empty as she watches the woman offering condolences.

    What religion is that from? The books in the library called this land faithless. Is that inaccurate?

    Colette writes down her account as Emily distracts herself wondering about New Denntimo’s religious standing.

    “You said it was the Mandrago family you wiped out, correct?” she says after a few moments, glancing up to clarify.

    After grabbing her bag from her room and making sure Anton, Angela, and Tony can handle flying through the night without her, Emily reassures them she will find them in the shipyard later and leaves to board the other ship.

    She climbs the steps following Colette, who has taken it upon herself to guide her. They step into the ship and the entrance hatch behind them slides shut before locking into place without either of them doing anything. Emily pauses and curiously places her hand against the door, releasing a flood of machina from her palm.

    “It’s controlled from the bridge,” Colette explains, noticing her interest.

    Emily nods, inspecting the intricate mechanisms hidden in the wall.

    This is fascinating. They’re using a secondary low-pressure piping system to send commands across their ship... They even have some simple mechanical logic gates here to control emergency shutoffs! This is ingenious. If I hijack this system and make some modifications, I can set up some decent weapons for Angela to control from the comfort of the bridge without needing electricity at all.

    She removes her hand from the wall and follows Colette deeper into the ship while making notes in her virtual notebook. The corridors they walk through are all lit in a cold white light by a glowing channel along the ceiling, similar to the light channels outside the ship.

    Emily spreads machina through her feet with each step, closely inspecting the lighting and frowning as she works out what the channel is.

    It’s a long tube of a non-metal material with a thread of metal in the centre... Why is that metal glowing though?

    Her perception spreads, and as they turn into the corridor containing the crew cabins, she finally spots the source of the light.

    A cluster of mana? I see. They must be spreading the raw light mana from those crystals using that thread, and the material around it is diffusing it into the room. Interesting.

    “You can use this room while you’re aboard,” Colette says, pushing open the door to a small room with a single metal-framed bed, a desk, and a chair. “You’re free to move around this ship as you wish, but I ask that you please stay away from the armoury and weapon placements for now. There will be food available in the mess hall in thirty minutes. Food will be available again at oh eight hundred tomorrow morning, and we should reach Liberte an hour later.”

    “Thanks,” Emily says, slinging her bag onto the bed and stepping into the room.

    “No problem. If you need me, I will be on the bridge or in my quarters, and if you can’t find me just ask any member of the crew.”

    Emily nods and shuts the door as Colette heads back the way they came towards the front of the ship. She climbs onto the bed and settles down cross-legged, not planning on sleeping at all.

    Time to compare.

    She pours machina into the ship, beginning the slow process of completely mapping it out as she pulls on her system’s description of it.

    ? ? ? ? ?

    [Border Patrol Ship #042]

    [Rank:] D

    [Description:] A heavily enchanted, medium-sized patrol airship built to protect New Denntimo’s borders. Designed for stability and durability with a mixture of kinetic and magical weaponry.

    _____

    The end of the description catches her eye, the mention of magical weaponry sparking her curiosity.

    Is that what those white rods were on their hull?

    She directs her machina towards the outside of the ship, quickly locating the metal rods protruding out in line with the nearby gun barrels. Each rod begins in an accessible room inside the ship and ends in the open air, with a complicated twisting pattern of runes coating their entire length.

    “They’re mostly white iron with a touch of mithril and silver. Are they for focusing a spell provided by the operator, or does the operator just provide mana?” she mutters, unable to read the mana-touched runes with her machina alone. “It doesn’t look like there’s a way to change the angle of the rod, so probably the former unless they plan on turning the ship to aim. Though I guess that’s possible.”

    She turns her attention away from the weapons for now and continues mapping the entire ship in full detail, trying to copy its blueprint. Unfortunately, even after four hours of close inspection, she’s unable to make a perfect blueprint.

    ? ? ? ? ?

    Machina scan incomplete.

    Blueprint created: Border Patrol Ship #042

    [Border Patrol Ship #042]

    [Type:] Steam Airship

    [Tier:] 1

    [Rank:] D (E)

    [Description:] A heavily enchanted, medium-sized patrol airship built to protect New Denntimo’s borders. Designed for stability and durability with a mixture of kinetic and magical weaponry.

    _____

    “Damn,” she mutters under her breath, looking at the window with a frown. “It’s meant to be D rank, but it dropped because I can’t map the magical enhancements with machina alone. I could finish it if I use mana too, but they’ll notice that. I guess I’ll reset tomorrow.”

    Her frown only grows as she looks at the tier as well.

    It’s still the same tier as Calypso despite being a higher rank and using a lot of magic. Steam power really is low-grade.