“Why can’t I be friends with a baby whale?”
Pastel leaned against the airship’s railing, cradling her head in her hands.
“Is my social skill just this much? At this rate, I can’t even call myself popular!”
The silver-haired girl beside her looked bewildered. Elshire had boarded the airship just in case of any emergencies.
“Isn’t it normal that you can’t be friends with a baby whale in the first place?”
The merciless observation of a noble lady.
She felt the pressure of a class system.
Pastel whipped around. She locked eyes with Elshire, her surprised expression turning to relief when she realized her higher status.
Phew.
I was almost reduced to a subordinate who couldn’t refute the faulty words of a superior.
But since I’m the superior now, I should say the right thing.
“You’re wrong! We can all be friends! Look over there!”
She pointed at the sky beyond the railing, almost tumbling over. The airship was flying straight without avoiding the fluffy clouds.
“That’s Cloud Friend! Not Cloud, but Cloud Friend! Don’t get confused!”
Both of them must remember that.
Otherwise, they’d be…
Sad!
Huh.
They’ll be sad!
I must remember this!
“He’s one of my friends! He came to greet us after hearing about our journey today! Hey, Cloud Friend! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?!”
Pastel waved her arms at the cloud friend. It was a rather friendly act toward someone she had just met.
Elshire gazed blankly at the cloud friend. Her silver eyes trembled, clearly struggling to figure out what kind of response was needed to the words of this marquis.
The airship pierced through the fluffy clouds. The view was shrouded in hazy fog. A cool, moist sensation enveloped her skin.
“Wow!”
It felt like being hit by a mist from an air conditioner while facing the wind directly.
“Cloud Friend! You’re welcoming me so enthusiastically! I’m glad too! Our friendship is eternal! Cough! Cough!”
While speaking, Pastel accidentally inhaled some mist, resulting in a fit of coughing. Somehow, the coolness felt excessive.
“Cloud! The welcome is too much!”
Such is the fate of a popular person, but this is an obsession that’s a bit overboard!
Elshire suddenly looked over with a semi-knight’s casual gesture, pushing away the mist and shot her a fierce gaze.
Her lips quivered before she bluntly said, “You got the name wrong.”
Huh.
Pastel froze in place.
A silence fell.
In the meantime, the airship emerged from the fluffy clouds. The clouds swirled around the airship like cotton candy before dispersing.
The crew shouted.
“We’re entering the sky mackerel territory soon!”
It was the territory that the mother whale had taken from the mackerels.
Oh no.
Pastel’s stiff body relaxed. She turned to the crew in shock before looking back at Elshire.
“It’s mackerel! Sky mackerel! It means it’s a flying mackerel!”
Elshire looked at the crew and then back at Pastel.
“More importantly, you got the name wrong—”
“Mackerel, you say!”
Aaaah!
Pastel clutched her pink hair.
“A mackerel the size of my head! I mean the vertical size matches my head! Isn’t that a tuna instead?! Why is it a mackerel?!”
Objection to the name!
Elshire’s lips moved.
“Well, because it’s a mackerel.”
It seemed clear that Elshire had never had a proper friend since living in the northern mountains.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t be saying such anti-social things.
But it’s okay!
The popular Pastel had experienced everything, so she could deal with this type of friend.
With a skilled strategy of listening and letting it flow!
“Ugh. It reminds me of my poor past. I once flew the skies, clutching my hungry belly to earn money. But there was a wicked group that blocked my way back then!”
She waved her hands.
“That group is none other than—”
She gestured to Elshire to speak up as if to say “go on”.
But as the conversation was set up, Elshire hesitated. She dragged her words, taking a long time before she finally spoke.
“Pirates are certainly strong—”
“No! It was the mackerel swarm!”
Pastel screamed.
“I had to tremble in fear atop the quaking airship, surrounded by the sounds of countless collisions!”
Shiver shiver.
Elshire, who had been hesitant, suddenly looked confident. She seemed to have experienced a mackerel swarm herself.
“Mackerels aren’t that scary—”
“The legion of terror! Ever since they appeared in my life, I’ve started drooling at the sight of any blue fish.”
Ugh.
Such a sad life.
Elshire looked dazed. She briefly glanced at the sky beyond the airship railing and then looked back.
“That’s just because you’re a glutton—”
“Oh God! Why did You make me to be born in this world and create mackerels?!”
Pastel pointed at a lone mackerel flying towards them.
“Just like that mackerel, Aaaah! It’s a mackerel…!”
The mackerel swam through the sky, and as it tried to collide with them, its body spun, and its tail fin slapped Pastel’s face.
“Cough!”
Pastel collapsed.
She clutched her cheek, now marked by the red fin pattern, screaming.
“It’s a surprise attack from a mackerel!”
Aaaah!
It’s an assassination attempt on the marquis!
The greatest crisis of her life…!
The fallen mackerel flopped on the deck.
Mackerel flop flop.
Elshire picked up the mackerel. As it wriggled, she calmed it down by patting its body.
She then examined a small note tied to the mackerel’s body.
“It’s a carrier fish.”
Her tone was calm.
Her friend almost got killed by a mackerel, and how could she be so nonchalant?
Pastel rubbed her cheek in disbelief.
What is a carrier fish?
Does that mean that while a pigeon goes coo~, a mackerel goes carry carry~?
She found hazy fish eyes looking back at her.
“Why use a mackerel?!”
When there are perfectly fine birds!
Birds are cooler and prettier!
Mackerels only smell fishy!
As Elshire was pulling out the note, she flinched.
“Don’t they also use saury…?”
“They use saury too?!”
Pastel was twice as shocked. Her hands began to tremble fiercely in the aftermath.
“Saury is, well, it’s even worse!”
Why, you ask?
“Because ‘mackerel’ has the same three letters as ‘pigeon’ and could pass off as it, but ‘saury’ only has two letters! The letter count is different! Completely different!”
Pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon.
Pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon mackerel pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon.
Pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon saury pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon.
Aaaah!
Saury stands out all by itself!
Elshire hesitated.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Pastel held her head and swayed.
This world is just too strange.
Elshire, sensing the mood, handed her the note.
The note was slightly damp in a bad way. It seemed to be soaked with mackerel’s sweat.
Pastel cautiously sniffed.
It smelled fishy.
“It smells fishy…!”
Elshire hesitated.
“Well, that’s just because it’s a mackerel.”
Aaaah!
That’s not the point!
Pastel was frustrated by the communication failure.
She slumped her head and reluctantly opened the note.
Though it wasn’t an official document, it had the nature of one. It was a request or notification sent by the knight order to the academy.
“Currently, dealing with the sky whale exceeds the scope of the academy’s duties, as the headmaster is absent. We ask that emergency duties be transferred to the knight order and for you to return?”
There were also subtle hints of concern about the chaotic state of the academy after the coup.
Wow, wow.
Are they suggesting we fight over jurisdiction?
During the terrorist incident, they didn’t help, claiming it was an internal issue and couldn’t move.
After resolving it, they set boundaries saying they couldn’t disclose the reasons as internal matters, but if they’re saying this now, how am I supposed to interpret it?
Is the organization using student lives to check power?
“Is it a jurisdiction dispute with the knight order?”
Elshire looked at her oddly, as if recalling a prophecy she’d heard somewhere.
“No!”
Pastel laughed, crumpling the note. As she rolled the paper in her palm, it ball-shaped neatly.
She flung the paper wad outside the railing. The white ball soared down beneath the sky.
Elshire approached the railing and looked down.
“Can we just throw this away…?”
“What’s wrong?”
Did something happen?
Pastel tilted her head, scanning the surroundings until she noticed the flapping mackerel on the ground and her eyes widened.
“Huh, a mackerel!”
I saw my first one today!
What is this mackerel up to?!
She hurriedly picked up the mackerel.
The heavy weight.
The wet texture.
“Are you perhaps a distant cousin of a pigeon mackerel?!”
The mackerel stared back with lifeless fish eyes. Its mouth opened and closed as if answering.
“No way?!”
Somehow, I knew it!
There’s no way a carrier fish type like that exists in reality!
It looked like it would flap away and be chased by carrier pigeons, so there was no way it would send an important official note!
Even if it tried to send it, it would probably get eaten by a passing sky tiger!
Roaring!
The sky tiger!
No wings, but just flying!
Pastel squinted and surveyed her surroundings.
The sharp-witted sky tiger (soldier) was already beginning to keep the academy personnel and crew quiet.
“Rawr! Rawr!”
Uh-huh!
Elshire gazed blankly at the scene.
“Indeed, the terrorist had no idle talk after all….”
Wait, what?
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