The grimoire 'Hwaran' made one decision the moment it was born.
'I will definitely be of help to my master!'
It was rare for an ordinary book to become a grimoire on its own.
It was even rarer for that grimoire to possess an ego.
And it was rarer still for it to swear loyalty to its master.
However, its master's fate had been so unfortunate that Hwaran's heart had been moved.
But for Hwaran to help its master, there was one fundamental problem.
'That idiot master threw me away and ran!'
Absurdly, the moment Hwaran was born, its master abandoned it in the forest and ran away.
In the end, after waiting for its master for several days, Hwaran reached the limit of its patience.
It decided to send telepathy to its master directly.
'Master! Master! Can you hear my voice?!'
However, for some reason, there was too much noise, so it could not contact him.
Perhaps some abnormality had occurred in his mana circuits.
Like that, Hwaran anxiously called out to its master every day for nearly a month.
In the end, its heart nearly broke, and it almost fell into despair.
Fortunately, if that was the right word,
Just before that happened, a group of hunters appeared in the forest.
Hwaran sent telepathy to them with all its might.
'Excuse me! Please pick me up!'
At that, one of the hunters noticed its presence and approached Hwaran.
"Oh, what is this? A grimoire has been abandoned in a place like this!"
The hunter picked up the book and flipped through it.
Hwaran shouted with all its might.
'Please! Find my master for me!'
But perhaps the hunter could not hear it, because he said to his companion,
"If we sell this to a noble, we could earn a few hundred gold, right?"
'Excuse me! This is not the time for that!'
No matter how much it shouted, its voice did not reach them.
It seemed conversation was impossible unless the other person had good sensitivity.
"This is great! We won't have to worry about making a living for a while!"
'Wait a moment!'
"Let's have a drinking party tonight!"
'Listen to me!'
"Let's head back and sell it right now!"
'Someone, please, just hear my voice!'
***
"Aaagh!"
Trine screamed in surprise and sprang up.
At that, the female students around him all looked at Trine at once.
Trine looked around at them and murmured,
"Who's Hwaran?"
At that, the female students turned their gazes away again and each said something.
"It seems he is still half-asleep."
"He always screams when he wakes from a nap."
"Leave him be. He must be suffering from pressure."
Trine turned his head and looked out the window.
All he could see was the deep blue sky.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he murmured again,
"Come to think of it, we were heading to the Romer Empire."
An airship bound for the Romer Empire.
Thanks to Princess Sia, it was a relief that the group had occupied the first-class section all to themselves.
If not, his sleep-talking just now would have earned sharp looks from the other passengers.
Butler Elford, who was sitting beside him, said to Trine,
"You should rest a little longer. It will still take half a day to arrive."
"No, I am done sleeping."
He was certain that someone named Hwaran had been calling out to him in his dream.
But not long after waking up, he had even forgotten that name.
'I feel like I've been having similar dreams a lot lately... Am I really just tired?'
As Trine continued staring blankly at the sky outside the window,
Princess Sia approached Trine and asked,
"Since you are awake, would you like to go take a walk on the deck with me to refresh yourself?"
"No. I have acrophobia."
"Then all the more reason for you to get used to the sky. If you marry me, you will be attending airship parties often."
"That gives me one more reason not to marry you, Princess."
"Hehe. It seems you are still not fully awake."
Princess Sia whispered into Trine's ear.
"If you keep doing that, I will expose our secret."
At those words, Trine glared fiercely at Princess Sia.
Princess Sia smiled brightly once.
Then she grabbed Trine by the arm and forcibly pulled him to his feet.
"Stop complaining and follow me."
Trine tried to resist,
But since his body had not fully recovered yet, his strength was even weaker than Princess Sia's.
In the end, led by Princess Sia's hand, Trine was forcibly dragged outside onto the deck.
"Wait! Let go! I really do have acrophobia!"
Princess Sia stopped right in front of the deck railing.
Then she said to Trine, who had kept his head lowered the entire time,
"Trine, would you lift your head for a moment?"
Under her pressure, Trine reluctantly and carefully raised his head.
Then he lost himself completely in the scenery that unfolded before his eyes.
"What is this... It is incredible."
The blue sky filled his entire field of vision.
A huge flock of pterosaurs flew leisurely alongside the airship.
It was the first magnificent sight he had seen in this world.
"Do you feel a little better?"
"...Yes."
Princess Sia leaned against the railing and said,
"When you look at the sky from somewhere this high, do you not feel as though you are terribly insignificant?"
"For a princess, that was pointlessly romantic."
"My curse too... When I think that whether I die from a curse, an incurable illness, or an accident, death is still death in the end, it feels rather absurd."
Trine could not bring himself to laugh at the joke Princess Sia tossed out indifferently.
A terminal life with less than a year remaining at the young age of fourteen.
The countless schemes and lies surrounding her.
The fact that she had become a calculating and sinister person unsuited to her young age
Was surely not something she had chosen for herself.
When Trine made a complicated expression, Princess Sia smiled mischievously and said,
"If I am going to die anyway, would it not be happier to jump off here and die rather than suffer from vain hope?"
"Do not talk nonsense."
Princess Sia stuck out her tongue once, then suddenly jumped over the railing.
Trine shouted in panic.
"Princess!"
However, Princess Sia was soon bounced back up onto the railing by a transparent film.
"Hehe. It was a joke. Did you not know this airship has a barrier?"
"Please stop doing things like that!"
"Before I met you, Trine, I truly did consider suicide."
Princess Sia gazed intently at Trine and smiled faintly.
"You are the only one who taught me true hope."
"I am honored."
"There are so many things I want to do after the curse is broken."
"Is that so?"
"I want to attend the Academy with you and enjoy tea parties with you."
"I do not care what you do, but please leave me out of it."
"And if I could even marry you after graduation, Trine, I would be happier than anything."
At those words, Trine nearly burst out in anger, but barely held it back.
"You know that cannot happen."
"Hehehe. I know. A dream is only a dream, after all."
Princess Sia took one step toward Trine and said,
"Please. I will not be greedy for anything else, so help me keep dreaming."
In the end, only after a long pause did Trine answer slowly.
"Very well. I promise I will unconditionally be on your side until your curse is broken, Princess Sia."
"Thank you."
"However, after that, please promise you will never harbor any strange feelings toward me."
"I know. The one who makes you shine is not me, but someone else, Trine."
"As long as you know."
Princess Sia laughed cheerfully.
Then she shoved Trine straight over the railing.
Trine flailed and eventually fell over the railing.
"Whoa!"
It was a somewhat rough prank.
Princess Sia had just jumped down herself to show him it was safe.
That was why...
She had never dreamed that Trine would truly fall from the airship.
"Huh?! Trine!"
Princess Sia shouted in panic and looked down over the railing.
But Trine was already nowhere to be seen.
***
On top of a pterosaur.
A large hooded man and a boy with cat ears stared intently at Trine and asked,
"Who the hell are you?"
After a brief pause, Trine answered,
"An ordinary traveler."
A moment earlier,
The large man and the cat boy had been trying to infiltrate the airship.
While riding a pterosaur, they had secretly nullified the airship's barrier temporarily.
Immediately afterward, some strange person had fallen from the airship.
They could not bring themselves to leave him alone, so they had rescued him for now, but...
The cat boy asked the large man,
"What should we do?"
"Just put him back on the airship."
"If he is a commoner, that is fine, but if he is a noble, things will become troublesome. Would it not be better to drop him?"
Trine answered in a panic,
"No! I am absolutely not a noble!"
At that, the cat-eared boy murmured suspiciously,
"Seeing how desperately you deny it, you look even more suspicious."
"Let us just let him go. If someone dies here for no reason, it will only give us headaches later."
"Fine. But if you try anything even a little funny, I will kill you."
"Phew... Thank you."
The cat boy drove the pterosaur and secretly approached the rear of the airship.
After the two of them leaped onto the rear deck first, Trine followed.
"Shall I show off a little?"
When the cat boy placed a hand on the closed cargo hold shutter and chanted a spell, the shutter opened on its own.
After the three entered the cargo hold, the shutter immediately closed.
The cat boy stretched and said,
"Good! Infiltration is successful."
"Be quiet. What will you do if we are discovered?"
"There is no one in the cargo hold, so it is fine."
Standing beside them, Trine fidgeted and asked,
"Um, why did the two of you sneak onto the airship?"
At that, the cat boy said proudly,
"We are the famous righteous thieves, the 'Sky Pirates'!"
When Trine let out a chuckle without realizing it at the somehow childish name,
The cat boy grabbed Trine by the collar.
"You laughing? Want me to throw you outside?"
He was so short that he even had to stand on tiptoe.
Rather than feeling intimidated, Trine almost burst into laughter again.
Beside them, the large man grumbled.
"I told you, 'Sky Pirates' is too childish a name."
"Shut up! It is way better than 'Black Wing'!"
"Anyway, Mr. Uninvited Guest, our goal is only to steal one treasure, so if you stay quiet, we will let you go afterward."
"What treasure?"
"A grimoire called 'Hwaran.'"
...Hwaran?
At the name that sounded familiar somehow, Trine narrowed his eyes.
"Why are you trying to steal that grimoire?"
At that, the cat boy said proudly,
"That book was stolen from its original owner by some noble. So we were asked to return it."
The large man cut in from beside him.
"Are you sure you should say that so casually?"
"What does it matter? We are honorable righteous thieves, so we have no reason to hide anything."
With those words, the two thieves left Trine alone and began rummaging through the cargo.
Trine had no choice but to sit quietly on the floor and murmur,
"How did things end up like this?"
All kinds of thoughts ran through his head.
For now, if he stayed still, it did not seem like there would be any major problem, but...
Because Trine had disappeared, people would soon come rushing to search for him...
And where in the world had he heard the name "Hwaran" before...?
Even while Trine was thinking about such things alone, the two thieves were absorbed in looking for the grimoire.
"Not this one. Not this one either. This is a dud too."
"Is it this book? No, this is just a novel."
How should he put it? It was incredibly frustrating.
At this rate, they would not find it even if half a day passed.
In the end, unable to bear it anymore, Trine said,
"Should I help too?"
At that, the two answered without even looking at Trine.
"We would be grateful!"
"Its cover probably looks like an ordinary fairy-tale book."
Why in the world were these two so defenseless?
Trine stood up.
In truth, for a while now, he had felt a presence that bothered him coming from one of the carriers.
When Trine opened the carrier, there really was a grimoire inside.
...For some reason, the cover looked extremely familiar.
However, perhaps because it had rolled through mud,
The letters on the cover were smeared, and he could not even read what was written.
For a moment, he felt the urge to read its contents.
But he had heard that reading someone else's grimoire without permission was a crime.
In the end, Trine gave up and shouted to the two thieves,
"I found it!"
The cat boy, who received the grimoire from him, struck Trine on the back on his own and shouted,
"Not bad! I acknowledge you as an honorary member of our Sky Pirates!"
"Are you two getting off now?"
"No. The pterosaur we rode here has probably already left."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"We have to hide quietly until we arrive. You should hang out with us until then."
They truly were thieves so sloppy it was frustrating.
The cat boy took a black eyepatch from his back pocket and handed it to Trine.
"It is an eyepatch with recognition-obscuring magic on it. While you wear it, no one will recognize you."
"Why give this to me?"
"We already have bounties on our heads, so it does not matter to us. But if you get caught with us for no reason, things will get awkward for you in all sorts of ways, right?"
"Ah... Thank you."
Trine reluctantly put on the eyepatch.
Even though it covered one eye, his vision was not obstructed, as if he were wearing glasses.
"This is a pretty nice item."
At that, the cat boy struck Trine on the back again and said,
"You've got a good eye, don't you? I made that."
"Oh! Really?"
"Come to think of it, we have not introduced ourselves yet. I am Cat."
"I am Muscle."
"Both of those are fake names, right?"
"Of course. And from now on, we will call you Scrawny as a fake name too."
Just then, the door inside the cargo hold suddenly opened with a clatter.
"Found you!"
It was Lizbette and Barbara.
Trine let out a sigh of relief.
But Cat suddenly drew a dagger and charged at the two female students.
"The first strike wins!"
At that, Muscle also gripped a one-handed axe and joined Cat.
In the end, Lizbette and Barbara also drew their weapons and faced them off.
With the situation looking poor, Trine took 'The Bremen Town Musicians' from inside his clothes and shouted,
"Everyone, wait! Fighting here is not good!"
He had only taken out the grimoire for an emergency situation.
If the female students knew Trine was safe, they would back down for now.
But that was Trine's great misunderstanding.
Lizbette stared intently at Trine's grimoire and asked in a low voice,
"You. Where did you get that grimoire?"
"What? What do you mean where did I get it..."
Trine had forgotten that he was currently wearing a recognition-obscuring eyepatch.
That was why Lizbette, unable to recognize Trine, shouted,
"You bastard! What did you do to Trine?!"
The female student charged without warning, greatsword in hand.
"W-Wait!"
Only then did Trine try to remove the eyepatch.
But for some reason, the eyepatch would not come off.
"Wait a moment! Let me take this off first-"
"That kind of underhanded trick will not work!"
Lizbette swung her sword without giving Trine time to finish speaking.
Even if she could not recognize Trine, perhaps she instinctively felt that she must not give him an opening.
In the end, Trine had no choice but to run around and struggle to take off the eyepatch.
Meanwhile, Cat and Muscle faced off against Barbara, who was holding her crossbow, and shouted,
"Ugh! More of them are coming from behind!"
"Fighting like this is not good!"
In the meantime, the other female students and even the airship staff had joined in, turning it into a complete melee.
With the sound of metal scraping here and there, cargo flew all over the place.
"Damn it! Plan B!"
Cat threw something shaped like a tin can onto the floor.
At that, white smoke burst out and filled the cargo hold.
Taking advantage of that, Muscle struck the button that opened the cargo hold's outer door hard with his fist.
"Jump!"
Cat and Muscle leaped outside with all their might.
Trine also tried to dodge Lizbette's sword strike and ended up falling outside.
As the three of them fell together from the airship,
Cat shouted,
"Scrawny, you idiot! You were supposed to stay behind!"
"It is because of the eyepatch!"
Muscle shouted,
"Hurry and open the parachute!"
Cat took a small can from his pocket and burst it open.
At that, a huge parachute unfolded.
Muscle snatched Trine in midair, then clung to Cat's back.
However, because three people were hanging from it, their speed did not slow at all.
Cat shouted,
"This can only carry two people!"
Muscle shouted,
"Just hold on! There is a lake below, so we should be fine!"
Trine shouted,
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
In the end, the three fools barely fell into the middle of the lake and managed to survive.