It had already been half a month since the Shadow Alliance was signed. Many things had changed, but many things were still the same as before.
Three days after signing the Shadow Alliance, not only did the Holy Church not send any new reinforcements, some Knight squadrons and angel squadrons that had suffered heavy losses were already retreating from San Antonio.
It seemed that the Holy Church had reached some sort of secret agreement with Duke Barrot. The Holy Church's forces retreated quite smoothly. The Holy Church's enemies simply watched as the Holy Church's forces retreated from the battlefield.
And this was only the beginning. The Holy Church's forces began retreating from every battlefield, with the most elite angel squadrons retreating the fastest.
If this continued, San Antonio would soon be the only ones left on the battlefield to fight their own civil war.
The Holy Church had given up on Prince Winston? Had they given up on San Antonio?
All sorts of news and rumors were spreading everywhere. Pope Caloma made an announcement, saying a bunch of nonsense like "The Holy Church will forever protect San Antonio" and "The God of Holy Light is watching over the land of Holy Light" in order to appease the public.
Of course, the government's words were always so heartwarming. At the very least, Pope Caloma's reputation as the representative of the Holy Light in the mortal world was quite high. Devout believers would still trust him.
As for what happened afterwards … when the civil war reached the point where only one side could survive, the survivors wouldn't care about what Caloma had said before.
And that would no longer have anything to do with me.
The popularity of magical engineering technology greatly reduced the distance between countries. Although airship tickets for cargo and passengers were quite expensive and limited to only a few major cities, my starting point and destination were both the capitals of powerful countries in the continent. It would be quite worth it to take a comfortable and safe airship.
But as the war progressed, this new transportation route also met with a new threat.
Along the way, our airship met more than ten waves of flying magical beasts, a passing green dragon, and more than ten Aerial Knight squadrons.
The green dragon and magical beasts were searching for food, while the Aerial Knight squadrons were patrolling the countries along the way. The current world was far from peaceful, so the Aerial Knight squadrons would keep an eye on every aerial target that passed by.
But in the end, the magical beasts were driven away by the magic cannons. The green dragon and the Aerial Knight squadrons followed us for a while before finally turning around and leaving.
The close to a hundred medium-sized magic crystal cannons on the giant floating ship were one reason, but the main reason was because of the chess pieces hanging on the ship.
Bardi's Dragon Head Flag, the Mist Alliance's Stormwind Castle, the Ottoman Empire's Crowned Flag, and the fairies' Listener Symbol were the chess pieces hanging on the bow of this passenger airship. This represented that this tiny passenger airship was backed by four major organizations.
The reason was simple. Only the Mist Alliance and Ottoman Empire possessed the technology to construct large airships capable of transporting goods and passengers across international borders. Neither of the Mist Alliance nor Ottoman Empire would miss out on such an excellent business opportunity. The vicious competition between the two factions had finally transformed into a cooperative monopoly. Not only would Bardi be able to keep up appearances, there would also be an additional reason. The fairies had also been invited to become a shareholder of Bardi. Their intelligence and organizational abilities would be far too useful in the transportation industry.
The neutral Mist Alliance would be able to organize the transportation of goods and passengers. This would also allow the participating countries to lower their guard. At the very least, it would be far more reassuring than the gigantic organizations like Bardi and the Mist Alliance.
In this generation, aviation laws didn't exist at all. The concept of sea routes had only just been introduced. The sailors and captains of the airships were all highly experienced seafarers. Even the tools used to determine the direction and coordinates of the airships were the same ones used on the sea. It would be quite common for the airships to accidentally deviate from the sea route.
This wouldn't be a big deal at sea, as the airships would simply turn around and return to their original location. But in a continent with no ruler, it would be a huge problem for an airship to trespass into another country's territory. Not only that, it would be an armed airship trespass, which might even cause a war.
That was why we often saw Aerial Knight squadrons following us. Perhaps it was because the Mist Alliance, Bardi, and Ottoman Empire's flags were sturdy enough, or perhaps these countries were already used to it. Most of the time, the Aerial Knight squadrons would only follow us for a while and watch us leave the airship.
There were other situations as well? Sometimes, the Aerial Knight squadrons would board the airship of their own volition. Although this was more or less a form of supervision, it was also common to hear the Knight squadrons chat about their country's customs and customs. Some of the more cheerful ones would even perform for their guests. There was a dark-skinned Scorpion Knight who was also an excellent dancer. Her desert-style dance left a deep impression on me.
This happened several times on the airship. Not only did the Aerial Knight squadrons ease the tension of the passengers, it also made us look forward to the rest of the journey.
Of course, judging from how the Aerial Knight squadrons skillfully accepted red packets from the airship crew when they left, it was likely that they already had a contract with the Mist Alliance. Or perhaps they were simply there to appease their guests.
At the very least, it seemed that long-distance passenger transportation between countries was a highly profitable business. I did a quick calculation. This airship would leave every three days, and there would be three to four hundred passengers on board. There were several different grades of airship tickets, but the cheapest one would cost more than two thousand gold coins. A VIP ticket would cost ten thousand gold coins each, which would be enough to buy a decent manor in the capital. Only major merchants or major nobles would be able to afford such a ticket.
If nothing unexpected happened, they would probably be able to earn several million gold coins. This would be even more profitable than robbing a bank.
However, it seemed that the expenses were quite high. Not to mention the depreciation of the airship, the world wasn't safe, and the magic crystal cannons and the permanent bodyguards on the airship were quite expensive.
Over the past few days, I had seen two Legends and one Saint "youngster". They were all wearing the armband of a public security officer, so they were probably the airship's bodyguards.
However, when considering the current chaotic situation in Eich, perhaps this was already quite a good deal. The road tolls and checkpoints were quite disgusting. Some areas were battlefields, and forcefully passing through would be no different from suicide.
Traveling on the air would be much less troublesome than traveling on land. After all, compared to flying magical beasts, deserters and bandits were far more dangerous.
At the very least, it seemed that these airships had several major countries' flags, so the airships were 100% safe. The passengers were quite confident in their safety.
This confidence had been tossed aside when the green dragon attacked, but reached its peak when the green dragon finally chose to leave.
"As expected of the Mist Alliance. Even the Dragons don't dare to touch their airship."
"It should be the Bardi Empire. Our country's Dragon Knight squadron is famous all over the world. That dragon must be afraid of being hunted down by our country's Dragon Knight squadron."
Although that Bardi citizen's words caused all the Bardi citizens present to feel proud and proud, I almost laughed out loud. After all, I understood the dragon language.
"… Damn it, a flying metal can. I heard that meeting one will bring good luck. Metal can, please bless Natasha with accepting my love. Please bless me with many treasures. Please bless me with … "
That Dragon's frightening roar was actually based on the newest rumor among the dragons. He prayed that he would meet with good luck, and that he would leave in the end. This wasn't a decision made after weighing the pros and cons, but rather because he was satisfied with his wish.
However, there were some things that these customers weren't wrong.
Considering the special relationship between Bardi and the Dragons, any "domestic dragon" that was connected to Dragon City wouldn't attack Bardi's airships.
In fact, that rumor had been spread by Dragon City, which supported Bardi, and Little Red's Dragon City. There was also a part of the rumor that attacking an airship would bring bad luck.
However, this was also the truth. Dragon City would receive a share of this business as well. Attacking an airship would be the equivalent of cutting off the Dragon Queen and Dragon Kings' source of income. It would be strange if the wild dragons didn't suffer. This was another reason why Bardi had been dragged into this business.
Of course, there was no such thing as absolute safety in this world. As the war progressed, accidents would occur sooner or later. Not everyone would be able to communicate with each other, such as running into a squadron of flying demons.
However, as the war progressed, land travel would become even more difficult and dangerous. This business would always have potential.
Having a secret agreement with the Holy Church also meant that this business could reach the Holy Church's sphere of influence. This would be a tremendous source of income.
More income also meant more ammunition and food, which meant that the Mist Alliance's national power was growing by the day. Perhaps we were the most suited to the environment of the Holy War …
"There's a group of flying demons in front of us! Succubi and four-winged Berserk Demons! "
Warnings sounded in my ears as the sailors hurriedly urged the passengers on the deck to take shelter in the cabin. Meanwhile, Harloys shot me a dissatisfied expression.
"You can blame me for this? Isn't this normal? The demon wave has ended, and the Chaos Abyss has entered an active period. There are countless Chaos Abyss Gates now. We've encountered demon armies, Demon Lords, and so on … "
"Old man over there, little girl, hurry and take shelter. Grandmaster Raikage, please attack! The magical radar has detected that a Demon Lord has appeared! "
Alright then, I decided to shut up.
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