---

The flames and smoke rising from the airship left everyone in shock.

“What’s going on? Did the airship just explode!?”

“Um, is Elizabeth okay?”

Schurz looked up at the sky with a startled expression, while Titania raised her voice in fear. However, there was no one to answer their question.

Amidst the chaos, the voice of the radio host could be heard, filled with panic.

[Wh-What’s happening? There’s an explosion on the airship, and black smoke is rising! Is it… an accident?]

Emotions are highly contagious. In particular, fear spreads more quickly and powerfully.

As the murmurs of panic from the citizens echoed from the radio, the unease spread like fog. The festival atmosphere, which had been filled with joy just moments ago, now felt like a lie. The students’ agitation was unavoidable.

But all of this felt familiar to me, as natural as breathing. On the battlefield, situations change in an instant. Years of experience left my mind cool and clear, discerning what needed to be done quickly.

I calmly directed the students.

“Return to the dormitory immediately.”

Marian replied a beat late to my command.

“…You want us to just go inside? Surely there’s something we can do—”

“There’s nothing you can do in this situation.”

No one dared to argue with my firm tone, not even Marian who had spoken up first. Amongst those present, if there was even one person who might be able to assist me… it had to be Osnia.

Just moments ago, she had been napping on Titania’s lap, but now, she was fully awake and looking at me with a steady gaze.

“Osnia, can you use teleportation?”

Teleportation is a high-level magic spell. Normally, it wouldn’t be something a student could use.

But she was the apprentice of the master of the magic tower. Osnia nodded in response, as if it were the most natural thing.

“I can. But there’s a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“Due to coordinate interference, teleportation within the academy is impossible, and a similar field is set up on the airship. That means I can’t teleport close to the airship.”

I see. There’s no easy way out.

Still, the fact that Osnia could use teleportation was a blessing.

Even if she couldn’t move inside the airship, it meant she could get close.

“Osnia will follow me, and everyone else evacuate to the dormitory.”

“C-Captain, what about Elizabeth?”

Titania asked. At her words, all the students turned their gazes toward me. Their eyes were filled with fear and concern.

“Don’t worry.”

I slowly looked up at the sky. The airship was still floating high above, with flames leaping and dark smoke billowing out, but it was still intact.

However, with such a large explosion, how much longer it could remain aloft was uncertain. It wouldn’t be strange if it fell at any moment.

Previously, I would have contributed by evacuating civilians and responding as part of my duty as a soldier. I might have even been assigned the role of saving the princess.

But now, things were different.

I was an instructor, and before being a princess, Elizabeth was my student aboard that airship.

As an instructor, I had to protect my students.

“I will rescue Elizabeth.”

Schurz questioned in a voice full of doubt.

“Captain, how are you planning to reach an airship floating so high in the sky?”

Schurz’s question was reasonable. After all, humans cannot fly. But I answered succinctly.

“There’s a way.”

*

Boom! Boom!

Whoosh!

The scorching flames, thick smoke, and continuous sounds of small explosions made the airship look like it was ready to fall at any moment.

As the people on the ground were in disarray, the situation above the airship was even more severe. And rightfully so. If this airship were to crash, everyone inside would surely perish.

The fierce heat singed Doctor Brown’s beard as he stumbled out of the engine room, coughing loudly.

“Cough, cough! This isn’t good! The engine is completely useless!”

The expression of the people turned to stone at Doctor Brown’s declaration.

That meant that even Doctor Brown couldn’t prevent the airship’s fall.

Katarina, the princess’s loyal bodyguard, shouted in frustration.

“Do something! Didn’t you make this ship?”

“That’s exactly why there’s no solution! The engine is completely shut down! It’s only hovering for now with the remaining power! Damn it! My design was definitely perfect…!”

“In the end, it exploded again, didn’t it!”

“That was all expected! This was a test flight that had gone successfully dozens of times! For it to explode today is just bizarre!”

“Enough!”

With Elizabeth’s loud voice, the two fell silent.

“It’s not Doctor Brown’s fault. So stop. Katarina, do your best to extinguish the fire. If this goes on, we might suffocate before the airship crashes. Doctor, please find a way to restore the engine. If that’s impossible, then at least find a way for the people to land safely.”

“Understood, Your Highness.”

“I will do that.”

Following Elizabeth’s orders, the two exited the deck to carry out their respective tasks.

After they left, Elizabeth tried to calmly assess the situation.

She had come to realize this could be a trap laid for her.

Yet she hadn’t anticipated that the opponent would resort to such extreme measures.

Surely, they wouldn’t try to kill their own sister, would they? She wasn’t so foolish as to let her guard down with such thoughts. If she had harbored such naïve notions, she would have lost her life long ago to an assassin disguised as a maid on her fifth birthday.

Elizabeth had faced assassination threats regularly. Therefore, she was already aware that the prince wished to kill her.

However, until now, these assassination attempts had mostly been carried out discreetly and quietly—so that if Elizabeth were to die, it could be disguised as an accident or suicide.

Of course, any noble would recognize this as an assassination, but there is a clear distinction between disguising it as an accident or suicide and publicly murdering someone.

The former could be seen as a common part of palace intrigues, while the latter appeared to be the act of a tyrant.

Especially since Wilhelm always enjoyed being the center of attention.

He was probably reveling in the spotlight, and it was unfathomable that he would risk tarnishing his own stage to kill her.

Such a scheme was one that Elizabeth would never have executed herself. After all, the one who had ordered them to board the airship was Wilhelm himself.

If the airship were to explode with the princess aboard, it would be a reasonable assumption that Wilhelm was behind it.

If she were to die here today, the grand airship project that had been so heavily promoted would certainly fail, leading to ridicule across the continent.

Moreover, even if Wilhelm were to become emperor later, he would have to bear the infamy of having killed his own sister and ruined the empire’s reputation.

Was he truly so cornered as to take such a reckless gamble…?

“Phew…”

Elizabeth sighed briefly, calming her racing heart.

She had decided to board the airship, fully aware of the potential dangers involved.

Prepared to brace for the worst, she had made thorough arrangements. She had checked multiple times for hidden traps within the airship, and the crew had been carefully selected with the help of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.

Doctor Brown, with his eccentric personality, had been uninterested in the succession dispute, so it was no issue, and she trusted the intelligence provided by the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, as they maintained a neutral stance.

However, confronted with this situation, everything felt suspect.

Who could be behind this incident? Was Wilhelm truly orchestrating all of this? Was the culprit who blew up the airship Doctor Brown, or one of the crew members?

Lost in such thoughts, someone approached Elizabeth.

“Are you okay, Your Highness?”

The man resembled a rough sailor with a scruffy beard, yet he wore the uniform of the Imperial Army.

He was Colonel Alfred, who had been elected captain of the airship due to his extensive experience navigating countless ships as a naval officer.

‘…As the captain of a ship, he might have had the opportunity to secretly plant a bomb.’

Elizabeth calmly responded without revealing her inner doubts.

“I’m fine. You’re quite calm yourself, Colonel.”

“Well, one doesn’t become accustomed to losing ships without having some experience.”

“Are you familiar with situations like this?”

“Somehow, yes. As a captain, I ought to share the ship’s fate, but I regret not having done so until now… I suppose today might be that day.”

His words were not simply a joke to be brushed off.

Elizabeth had no intention of dying here. She had always lived with the expectation of death, but dying here, in this situation, was absolutely unacceptable.

For all those who had died in her stead.

Elizabeth’s hand tightly gripped the ‘emergency device’ she had secretly prepared in her pocket.

Using it could save her own life, but… she couldn’t guarantee the lives of the others on the airship.

She had been wrestling with the dilemma of abandoning everyone on this airship to save herself.

Her rational mind insisted it was the right thing to do, but Elizabeth kept pushing that decision to the back of her mind.

‘Someone….’

Would someone come to help?

Elizabeth firmly scolded herself for even having such weak thoughts.

Who on earth would come? In this sky.

The only thing she could trust and rely on was herself. Everyone else was merely a means to an end, relationships where she used and was used as necessary. Her knights who had sworn loyalty to her, her friends from school, and everyone else.

“Ha-ha…”

Who would risk their lives to save such a cold woman, one who trusts no one and opens her heart to no one?

Even if such a person existed, the reason would be simply because she was a princess. There couldn’t be any other reason.

At that moment, it happened.

-Whoooooosh!

A familiar roar echoed from somewhere. At first, she mistook it for the sound of the airship’s engine, but that wasn’t it. The engine had long since stopped, and this sound was coming from further away.

“What is this…?”

Just as she turned to look in shock at the sudden deafening sound, everyone witnessed an unbelievable sight.

A man on a motorcycle was plummeting toward the airship.

 

---