"Oh oh? What's this?"
"Hmm?"
A familiar voice rang from above.
"Oooh, Scarlet! What'cha got there?"
"Orphne?"
From overhead, the fairy that served under me came fluttering down. She was originally a part of the elite fairy guard, but after she was fired from her position, I ended up becoming her new employer. Though it wasn't like I actually paid her a regular wage. At least not in coin. For some reason, this little being was fine with receiving sweets in the place of pay. Though she did eat a lot, far more than what you'd conceivably consider to be able to fit into her little body.
Even now, there was some sort of white bun in her hands that smelled sweet. Though it was half eaten already.
"Hey! This looks interesting!"
"Orphne, what happened to your work?"
The little fairy was supposed to be off doing a delivery to trade dungeon materials and goods produced here to the small village just outside the forest our nation was build inside of. In exchange for the paper they made, we provided everything from food to equipment.
"I finished it already~!"
"Already? You only left four days ago."
Usually it took her seven days to do the job. Three to get to the village, one spent wasting time over there, and three more to get back. Despite the fact that fairies took absolutely no effort to fly, they were comparatively slow at it. It was probably more accurate to say that they floated rather than flew. Despite having those wings sprouted out of their backs, they didn't really flap nearly fast enough to keep them afloat.
"That's cuz I got this made! Yea!"
Orphne pulled out something from her bag. A cylinder as big as she was with four little wings sticking out near the base. Looking a bit closer, there was a turbine fan inside of it along with some fairy sized grips and foot pedals. There was a simple enchantment to rotate the fan along with another to control the device clearly written on the outer body.
"Is that a turbofan?"
A while back, I experimented in trying to build an airplane. Since the two settlements of our Hourai Commonwealth was separated by quite a distance, I had thought that maybe we could build airplanes to allow people to move from one side to the other rather than only having the dungeon be the way people and goods moved back and forth. Congestion at the entrance got pretty bad on occasion, and the entrance was only wide enough for a small wagon. Moving large goods between the two cities was virtually impossible without a magic bag, so a secondary way to move between the two locations felt like a good idea.
Except it didn't work. While we were able to get most of the parts designed and built, in the end, regardless of how we redesigned the wings, the frame, and switching between propellers, duct fans, and even turbines incorporating compression and expansion chambers, the efficiency never got high enough. The energy requirements to get a plane airborne and fly all the way to the other side proved too high to actually allow any decent capacity unless if it was being powered by a particularly strong mage rather than mana crystals. But if that was going to be done, then the project wouldn't be economically viable, so the whole thing was scrapped.
There was the alternative to have it powered by someone with high enough stats to be the power source, but they would have to be paid enough for the economic viability to quickly be drowned this way as well.
I never knew that someone had miniaturized the turbine though.
"Yup! Look at this!"
Orphne straddled over it, and by passing mana in through the handles, the turbine whirled to life with a high pitched whine and the little fairy sped off. Her flight was quite shaky as it didn't look like there was much stability in the design, and the torque made her constantly have to adjust or else she'd keep rolling to one side. But on a very basic level, she was able to fly much faster like this than normal. And at this scale, the energy requirements was low enough that it might not take a high level fairy to supply the required mana, not just Orphne who was originally an elite guard.
The little fairy zoomed around showing her new toy off. The sight reminded me of one of those RC airplanes, except there really was an actual pilot riding the thing.
"Haha! How was it?"
"Oooh, pretty neat."
I gave Orphne some light claps as I praised her.
This wasn't something which I had considered with the original design. In fact, we were instead moving towards moving the technology into making trucks and buses, or even a train, and just building a road or tracks between the settlements instead. It would be a lot of work building and maintaining the road. Or rather, not just the maintenance, but the risk of monster attacks was quite the problem if we wanted it to be a regular service.
But while those ideas had stalled due to the difficulties in implementing them, Orphne here had already gleefully shown me an alternative. At least for solving half of the problem.
That said...
"So...where did you get the money to buy that toy of yours, huh?"
"Erk!"
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the little fairy still straddled across the magical turbine engine.
"I hadn't even heard of this fairy sized turbine, so it must be very new. In fact, looking at how rough the design is, this must still be part of the first generation or even one of the prototypes. Such a thing can't be cheap to buy, and the wage I pay you in is in treats, not coin. All of which you eat up as soon as you get it to the point that you come begging for more before your next pay half the time."
"Erk!!"
"While I do pay you money for any additional tasks, I know that you usually spend it almost immediately on even more treats. And any amount you've managed to save couldn't have gone to pay for something as expensive as that toy, am I right?"
"Erk!!!"
"So as to how you got your hands on that turbine...my guess is that you 'borrowed' it? Maybe without asking?"
"Gaaaah!!!"
Orphne grabbed her head in both hands and shook it back and forth wildly.
"Haaa...it figures. You keep doing this sort of stuff. Looks like you need a punishment again. Maybe your treats..."
"Wait! Wait! Anything but my treats!"
That foolish little fairy of mine dropped down and practically started begging at the very mention of her treats. But I wasn't going to make the same mistake as before. I've already learned long ago that banning treats was too much of a punishment for fairies. It was like forcing a cocaine addict to go cold turkey against their will.
It's not like she was unrepentant. At least after I gave her a punishment for messing up, and the threat of taking away her treats was so effective I felt bad using it even on bigger things. But the fact that I needed to teach her, and adult, so many things that she's doing wrong, it felt like I was raising three children not two.
Or rather, how was Orphne being even more selfish than Alicia and Fate, who were only a fraction of her age?
Then again, fairies in general were pretty lax when it came to these sorts of education. They liked to play a lot and forgave easily.
If you were nice, you could call them casual, if not then lax. And as long as you didn't take them too seriously, they were fun to be around. But occasionally they did things that went too far. It was easy to see how they often got in conflict with the elves back in their homeland when they were like this.
I couldn't help but wonder if Orphne did these sorts of things knowing that it was bad to do, or if she was simply oblivious until it was pointed out?
"Anyways, we'll go and apologize together."
"Then, then my treats...?"
"For now I won't do anything."
"Yay!"
"But that depends on how the other party feels, alright?"
"Alright! This 'toobaine' belongs to Elder Aurae, so it'll all be fine!"
"Huh?"
Somehow, I really wondered just how full of cotton candy this fairy's head was.
Leaving Sarah and Magni to their work in the dungeon, our group of four passed through the dungeon over to the eastern settlement.
Over here, the place that was first settled by the great fairy migration over half a decade ago, has changed quite a bit even in the last few years. Just past the dungeon entrance, the trees were filled with little buildings either suspended on, or even hanging off of the enormous trees that inhabited the area around the great Hourai Mountain which our Hourai Commonwealth was created around.
Of course, after so many years and so many more immigrants since I had discovered these migrants suddenly popping up at the front door of my home while I was away travelling the world, the new home of the fairies, along with the myriad of spirits that followed them and blotted out the skies, there were plenty of signs of others who had chosen to share a home with these eccentric creatures.
In the heavy shades of the enormous trees that made up the local forest, for every few fairy sized structure, there was one for those of us with larger statures build on the ground. Whether the owner was a human, beastkin, or one of the dark people, there was a distinct lack of discrimination based on one's race that was apparent with how everything was laid out, without a care of who would be their neighbours.
Being from a world where people often wouldn't even tolerate their own fellow humans due to such minor differences like belief or culture, it was great to see all these people who weren't even of the same species who eschewed their differences and instead embrace their similarities.
From workshops to grocers, and of course many individual homes. Though due to the originally extremely high fairy population, the number of fairy sized buildings built high up completely dwarfed the larger ones on the ground.
But the mix of facilities made to cater to a wide variety of home owners, workers, and consumers as well as how everyone passed through the streets with smiles on their faces was solid proof that things were going well and that our nation was on the right track.
"Vweee!"
Orphne flew around on her little turbine. It was clear just how much she was enjoying it, though the noise of the engine itself almost drowned out her vocalized sound effects.
People all around stared at the strange contraption as the little fairy flew wide circles around us.
"That's pretty amazing but..."
"Mommy's way faster."
(Well, it's true, but kinda cheap to make such a comparison.)
Even still, I couldn't stop myself from gently stroking Alicia and Fate's hair as their heads swivelled while their eyes continued staying on Orphne's flight.
Making sure that Orphne was following me, we made our way to the fairy elders' place.
In the middle of a circular plaza, there was a large crystalline structure that almost resembled some sort of fantasy winter palace. Though it was suspended in the air by a single thick crystalline wire connected to a web of crystal lines that ran between all the giant trees around the plaza to the centre.
While the overall structure was clearly made for fairy proportions, the entryway all the way to the audience chamber were still large enough for a full sized person to enter at least. More than big enough for someone like myself, though a titan would have to squat their way in.
As one of the leaders of this nation, I was easily able to enter the fairy elders' place without question as well as meet up with the fairy elder I was most familiar with.
But when I entered the audience hall, a wide circular room with space enough for all the fairy elders to float side by side while meeting with as many as five normal sized people and still have some room left over, I was met with an unexpected sight.
"Ha! Take this!"
"Oh no!"
"Eeek! You blocked it!"
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"Do it now!"
"Take this! [Love love pink hell thrust]!"
"Gah! No, not again!"
What I saw was all the fairy elders already there. Most of them formed a circle and were cheering on as the other two were sitting on player chairs, controlling their celestials.
(Since when did they install a Goddess Realm table here?!)
Or rather, I would've thought that installing such a table would be a problem considering that this was the audience chamber. With the large playing table in the way, there wasn't anywhere to take in more than one or two people.
It was fortunate that of the four of us, two were children and one was a fairy.
"So ummm, hey?"
"Ah, Scarlet! You came! How about a match!"
"What?! Not again!"
It was fortunate that at least someone had some sense in their heads here.
"Play against me instead! You're always playing against Aurae!"
Never mind.
The worst bit was probably that once this other elder started to try to challenge me to a match, the others quickly joined in and it became a shouting match trying to get me to play.
(These guys were supposed to be the elders of the fairies, both in stature and in age. Why aren't they able to act their age in the slightest?)
"Sorry, today's not a good day for that. I've got some other business with Aurae."
"""Awww..."""
The disappointment was so thick in the air that I could probably cut thick slices of it with a butter knife. But rather than that, I waded through it to get to the point.
"So what've you come here for today Scarlet?"
"Ah, rather than myself, it's for her. So do you have anything to say for yourself Orphne?"
"Nope!"
(What a lack of remorse!)
Though I had expected it, it was still a bit disheartening that she acted this way.
Even to the point that the fairy that technically served me was floating around using the thrust of the magical turbine to stay afloat rather than her own abilities. Fortunately, while the turbine was normally pretty loud, doing this much left the noise level at a more tolerable level.
Tired of this, I thrust up my shadow and grab the glittering fairy and press her body against the floor.
"Sorry about this...again."
"Well, we all kinda expect it."
Aurae gave off a light laugh as she gave me a look of pity.
(Seriously, I punish her, she learns, only for me to find out that she does something that's only slightly different from the last one.)
It was fortunate that she did learn her lessons properly at least. But the breadth of her learnings was weirdly narrow, causing the number of lessons needed to be endlessly high.
I hadn't realized it when I had originally took her under my wing, but Orphne really was the sort to cause endless trouble. It was far too late, but I did understand why Aurae was so eager to put her under my care all those years ago.
It really was unfortunate then, that I had no one to pass the tricky girl off on to. Anyone who might be responsible enough to handle her already knew exactly what sort of trouble she was, making such a transfer nearly impossible.
And I couldn't just abandon the girl. The very thought of what would happen if she were unable to earn enough money to pay for her sugar addiction...
Well, as troublesome as she was, she was a hard worker, so the negatives didn't really outweigh the positives. I just needed to make sure that the little fairy would stay too busy to cause much trouble.
"Hmm..."
"You know, it's not really a big deal. The artisan that made that one is already working on a better version. But if you really want my help to punish the girl, I don't mind giving her one of my [lovely pretty super genocidal star] blasts."
"No, that's fine. I was just thinking...there was a nice way to use these things."
"Oh?"
Not minding what the elder said, I moved on to my idea.
"These turbine engines can allow a fairy to move long distances quite quickly. And the mana consumption when this small was low enough that it doesn't even require a high level person to fuel it."
My words drew the elders, not just Aurae, in as their eyes sparkled with interest.
"I think, with just a bit more work, any fairy would be able to use one of these engines."
"Orphne does seem to be having a lot of fun with hers after all..."
The other elders nodded to Aurae's words.
While admittedly, despite having my own wings, there was an appeal even to me to be able to ride such a thing, enjoyment wasn't exactly the thing I had most in mind.
"We've been having trouble with congestion at the dungeon entrances. How about we use these turbine engines and start a delivery service between the two cities? A Fairy Air Express Service, so to speak?"
"I see. You'd only need one of these engines and a magic bag to bring things back and forth between the two cities. And as it doesn't use the dungeon to do so, it would reduce the traffic there as well."
"The merchants would be better able to sell things across the city as well. We could have dedicated places to put inventory listings and have the items ordered, paid, and even delivered between the cities as well."
While the technicalities would be slightly different, this could be the beginning of modern e-shopping. Or maybe catalogue shopping? I had a feeling that was a thing when I was a kid in my previous life, though I couldn't really remember for sure.
There was the issue that travel between the cities would likely go down, but the congestion got pretty bad, sometimes to the point that we needed people to direct traffic to avoid accidents. On what was basically just a short foot path.
And looking at things from a long term perspective, this was the right decision. Eventually, it would be best to just make a proper road or rail tunnel to connect the two cities, but until such a thing came to being, this was a good stopgap measure which had to potential to continue even after such a method of transportation got set up.
"Hey, if we make a whole bunch of these, maybe we can do more with them?"
"Sure. I haven't come up with any other ideas yet, but if you have any..."
"Maybe, maybe we can use them to play new games? Like chasing each other?"
"...I...guess..."
I saw the appeal. I really did. Even for a race that spent almost none of their waking hours on the ground, the ability to fly quickly would likely be enticing to them. There would be no shortage of fairies who'd be willing to work to get the opportunity to fly these machines, and few of them would quickly tire of it.
But that presumed that we actually were able to produce enough of them to satisfy the demand.
And that didn't take into consideration that they were noisy things as well. Not even close to as noisy as the jet engines from earth, but these things would likely damage the user's hearing if protection wasn't worn over long flights.
Though magic could probably solve that. Both in terms of dealing with the noise as well as recovering from hearing loss.
"F...for now, how about we just keep things at the level of trying out deliveries? And once we manage to make enough turbine engines, we can move on to creating an air show team?"
"An air show team?"
"Well, you know how sometimes I play around with the fluff...I mean, spirits? We fly together in formation or do various stunts at parties?"
"Oh yes! Yes! Those shows are absolutely marvellous!"
"I was thinking, maybe if we attach some lights or generate smoke trails, we could have a group of fairies riding the engines to do some tricks on them?"
I looked closely at the fairy elder, hoping that my words diverted her attention away from trying to unreasonably push for mass production before a good design had even been created. As things stood, these things weren't suitable for anything beyond testing the waters.
There were no safety measures, and the difficulty in use was just too high. Not to mention the noise and limited efficiency.
"I see. I see. Then, how about I lead them!"
"Huh, oh, umm..."
While it was unexpected that Aurae would volunteer to lead the team so quickly after I proposed the idea, it really was something which shouldn't have surprised me looking back.
"Wait! What are you doing trying to get ahead on something so interesting?"
"Yea yea! I wanna to lead the team too!"
"I want one!"
All of the sudden, all the other fairy elders that were staying quiet up until then started to clamour up trying to lead or at least be a part of the team.
It didn't take long before all the shouting started to make my head hurt.
In the meantime, Orphne continued to do circuits around the audience chamber floating in the air with nothing but the thrust of the turbine engine she was riding.