Book 4 Prologue

Book 4 Prologue

"Translator: ClefRunner"

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Episode 05 SMELLS LIKE TOON SPIRIT

Ill take all the help I can get.

From beyond the cloudy sky, a flying boat was getting closer. From what he could see within the frame of his Bushnell binoculars, there was no doubt that it was a single propeller aircraft, but he could not hear the sound of the engine yet. It was still about five or six miles away. It probably would be no more than two minutes until it arrived at the small landing strip.

Kei Matoba turned on the switch of his wireless headset.

Seems like our guest is finally here. All units, stand by.

The roll call had already been done. All members of the staff on stand by amounted to 12 people. There were members of the San Teresa Police Departments special Vice Squad, and some uniformed officers from Goranbitha county.

They were hiding inside the shabby hangar, the regulations cabin, or the storagehouse, carefully waiting and watching out for their guest.

Thats unexpected. I didnt think hed come.

Muttered Tilarna Exedilika, looking bored right behind Matoba. She had her blond hair elegantly arranged to accompany her silver armor. She was leaning with her back against the concrete wall, and she was disinterestedly poking a wooden box with her sheathed Krge.

Well, ONeills leads occasionally end up being useful. Occasionally, yeah.

~o~O~o~

It all started the previous night.

Matoba went home after work, and just as he was about to put his hands on the small sailing ship model he hadnt touched in a long time, he received a call from ONeill, his informant.

Apparently ONeill had gone to a club in Seven Miles with a girl that night, and coincidentally heard the conversation from the guys next to him. ONeill, the self proclaimed priest (sometimes a Christian father, sometimes a monk, sometimes a spirit medium), apparently had managed to convince the girl to go with him with some made up story, but more importantly, the contents of what he overheard were quite interesting.

Apparently there were plans to smuggle in some cargo via a small landing strip located in the wetlands east of San Teresa, in Goranbitha county.

The contents of the cargo were unknown. It probably was more Goblin powder or Fairy dust, or valuable luxury items in a tax evasion scheme. There even was a possibility that the cargo were people being trafficked. The only thing certain was that the items were not being brought in legally.

The Lanceros landing strip was not the kind of place regular flights would take off from. It was merely a place that the very few residents of the vast Goranbitha wetlands used occasionally. A few flights per week would take off in worn out propeller planes, and it didnt even have any permanent employees. It had no beacons to guide the flights, and of course there were no traces of a radar or anything similar. It was a two hour country drive away from San Teresa city, and even the closest police station was already thirty minutes away.

There were countless strips like that throughout all of Kariena Island. So of course, people in the illegal business were making good use of them. The air traffic radars were not able to detect small aircrafts like that, and they didnt even have the budget to begin with.

It had gotten to the point that they needed to rely on intel from informants like ONeill to be able to combat it at all.

There was nobody around to receive the items. They had only encountered a couple of clueless junkies that had driven to the spot in a rental car, and they had already been arrested, and the car seized. All that was left was waiting for the aircraft to land.

Im sick of waiting. Kei, lets get this over with and go home.

Tilarna stood up. She curved her back and stretched, almost like she had just finished some light workout.

Hey, were not here shopping. Dont lower your guard. Shopping is harder than this. Dorini market prices are too complicated. Tea costs one dollar, but some fish eggs cost over two hundred? I dont get it at all. Well, thats caviar, I told you about it the other day.

It had already been over four months since Tilarna had arrived on Earth as a Semani Knight, but even then she still was not fully adapted to Earths everyday life. Matoba had started wondering if perhaps it was more of a personal problem due to her nature, than a consequence of her condition as someone from another world.

Back in my world, tea leaves cost about ten times the price of fish eggs. Dont compare the eggs of any fish you can catch in your local river with caviar. This is why youll always be a hillbilly. Hmph whats wrong with the countryside anyways? My Naruma is a city with history! In the past it blossomed as a commercial hub under the Kingdom of Darthemelayas rule, and it defeated enemy general Belbi during the Shewatha wars. Your hometown of Wonuma or something is not even worth mentioning compared to it. Uonuma is a rice producing site. My hometown is Sagamihara. Try to remember that for once! Well it sounds similar. It doesnt at all! Maybe thats the problem. You aliens have ears that were built like that to begin with. So do sounds like Uonuma and Sagamihara sound the same to you after all? Thats a pretty interesting question. Please educate me on how you Dorinis perceive the world around you. Maybe you are seeing a completely different world from me. However, unfortunately, as long as youre not able to use Morth el Balba, we will never know for sure. Morth whats that? Its some Mildi referred to as the hand that carries the soul. Its a spell meant to switch two peoples souls and if you Dorinis used it, then maybe youd know what real people hear. Huh.

Matoba reluctantly accepted the existence of that kind of magic used by Semanis, but it definitely sounded made up.

Matoba, who had come chasing after her, was looking pale after seeing what she was about to do.

Stop it, you idiot! Do you want to die?! Shut up and watch. Wha

He had thought about running in and pushing her away, but he quickly realized that he would only manage to fall prey to the planes propeller. He imagined that, unless she had gone insane to the point of not noticing the risk, then she probably was acting based on confidence.

As he was folding his arms, the plane and Tilarna intersected each other.

It all happened in a flash.

She barely managed to turn her body, and draw her Krge. Small sparks flew out of the plane, and a grating metallic sound resonated through the air. That was all that Matoba could sense.

.!

Fortunately, Tilarna had not been swallowed up by the propeller.

She landed on the runway after spinning forward in the air, and the aircraft passed her by as they all watched it get away. On the other hand, the makeshift Cessna seaplane didnt slow down at all. It seemed to waver slightly, but it kept going to the edge of the runway and narrowly managed to take off.

You let it get away. Fuck! It ran away, you fuckheads!

One of the county officers was shouting through the intercom.

It was one of your novice officers who did it to begin with was what Matoba wanted to shout back at him, but doing that on their turf was not a good idea. He simply held it back, and remained silent as he dumbfoundedly watched the aircraft get away.

Tilarna calmly stood up, and dusted off a cloud of sand from her butt.

Hey. What was that? What? That act you put up back there. Were you trying to kill yourself?! I would rather let the suspect run away, than get scolded for letting an officer die!

Tilarna didnt falter even with Matobas threatening attitude. She quickly gazed at the aircraft that was gaining altitude and getting away, and merely grumbled hmph.

Kill myself? Theres no way I would commit suicide or anything like that In that case I thought you wanted to stop that airplane without shooting. In those cases it seems like you just cant count on your Dorini tools. What? Just watch.

At that moment, they saw the left floating part of the airplane fall off as it was getting further away into the horizon. They could hear no sound. All they could make out was the figure of the float, which was about as big as the body of the plane itself, falling and turning through the empty sky.

A skilled pilot would have probably been able to keep flying even after that. However, it seemed like this pilot didnt have the ability to reclaim control of the out of balance aircraft, preventing it from falling into the ocean. Its wings shook harshly from left to right, and the plane started losing altitude. It trembled as it kept falling, in an attempt to correct its drill-like tailspin movement.

Ah

The plane crashed.

They could see a large water splash with their own eyes, even standing behind the tall bushes.

Since the area they were in was full of wetlands, all Matoba could do was hope that the mixture of water and mud worked as a soft cushion. In the best of cases, they would even be able to save the lives of its crew.

Got it? This is the true edge of a Vyefahrt blade.

Said Tilarna as she swiftly sheathed her Krge

Dorini machinery and technology cant compare. I can at least do something like this without relying on your dull guns Well, of course, I had to rely on a bit of Mildi as well. Ah, yeah. I see.

After responding adequately to Tilarnas words, Matoba called out to the others on the radio. And whispering, he said

The idiot took down the plane. I repeat, the idiot took down the plane. This is an emergency, hurry to the crash site. Wait, Kei. Are you perhaps referring to me when talking about this idiot? Shut up! Who else could I be talking about?!

He was indeed shouting directly at Tilarna.