Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

The airship “Progress” had been produced in Auland’s production facility in the city of Suerno. This airship had a length of 107 meters, and was a Wealth-class extravagant passenger airship.

“Progress” had two third-class passenger cabins (large shared passenger cabins), 90 second-class passenger cabins (three-person rooms), 50 first-class passenger cabins (either two-person or three-person rooms), and 20 VIP passenger cabins (10 two-person rooms and 10 single-person rooms). “Progress” had a theoretical passenger limit of 500. On average, each trip had about 340 passengers.

Unlike future airships which would even have game rooms, dance halls, and swimming pools, this first generation of airships hadn’t matured that much yet. The great majority of storage units on the airship were used for constantly active engines and batteries. Even if there was extra space on the airship, when considering the dangerous environment outside right now, extra space would only be used for installing extra magic cannons and for housing more aerial knights.

Although three and a half year had now passed since the “Progress” airship had been constructed, and it had made almost 100 international trips already, due to the airship crew’s careful maintenance and investment from the airship’s powerful supporters, this airship still looked just like new.

Noat, the captain of this airship, had always been proud to be its captain. He even privately referred to this airship as his “favorite little daughter”.

But now, it was likely that even Noat wouldn’t recognize his own “daughter” anymore.

The airship’s smooth yellow deck was filled with cracks all over. Of the airship’s four floating engines, one was spewing black smoke and had completely stopped operating, while another engine constantly stopped and started. The result was that the airship constantly tilted in midair, scaring the airship’s crew so much that they had to constantly focus.

The airship sail, which was for helping the airship to fly in powerful winds, had been completely torn off and abandoned after more than half of it was burned away. Yet, the empty flagpole wasn’t lonely, as it was broken off as well. The highest level, which contained all of the VIP guest rooms, had also been completely destroyed.

Luckily, when the remnants of the shock wave had arrived, everyone had been taking shelter in the large passenger cabins, which was the only reason why the VIP passengers hadn’t died. Currently, only the royalty, major nobles, and major merchants were able to afford the VIP ticket prices which we privately referred to as a scam. If 10 such individuals had died all at once, the airship captain probably wouldn’t have been able to afford the consequences.

The VIP guests were quite understanding. Still, the airship’s vice captain, head flight attendant, first mate, and other such high-ranking airship crew all had to give up their personal cabins on the airship to these still frightened VIP customers.

As for the captain’s room, which had the most extravagant and complete furnishings of all? It was now taken by a certain “guest” who had boarded while concealing his real identity. Captain Noat himself had voluntarily given his room to this person.

Captain Noat had 20 years of experience as a smuggler. However, he had voluntarily signed up for Auland’s navy during the war against the Sea Tribe. Noat had captained a ship and specialized in attacking the Sea Tribe’s supply lines. After three and a half years of guerilla warfare, although Noat’s military accomplishments weren’t astonishing, he was at least a passable military captain.

After the Queen of Storms died, and Auland’s battle to reclaim their capital became far more winnable, Noat chose to retire from Auland’s military. After that, when Auland’s government recalled Noat’s former job, they recommended him to become the captain of this new experimental passenger airship. Over the past few years as the airship captain, he had indeed done a good job.

As Noat was formerly a part of Auland’s military, of course he would know who Roland was.

It was likely that Auland would’ve still been covered by sea if it hadn’t been for the Mist Alliance’s reinforcements. The name Roland was also directly connected to the Queen of Storms’ death. Roland’s disciples and subordinates had participated in the entirety of the battle to reclaim Auland’s capital. During that difficult battle, the gray elf Anti-holy Knight Diana had been a powerful new troop type that equaled a battleship in power. All sorts of newly invented weapons joining the war had solidified Auland’s desire to ally with the Mist Alliance.

The people of Auland couldn’t be blamed for being pragmatic. International diplomacy had always been like this. Weak countries wouldn’t even have the right to negotiate with the strong. Meanwhile, a strong country wouldn’t even have to do anything to pick up followers. This was nothing new at all.

That was why when Captain Noat recognized Roland, he immediately took action to protect Roland without any hesitation.

That was right, protect. Since Roland was burned all over like that, according to common sense, Roland seemed like he was on the verge of death. It would be strange if there wasn’t anyone who would want to take advantage of such an excellent opportunity.

Captain Noat definitely had reasons to be worried about this. This airship had just left Prince Winston’s territory in San Antonio, where Roland was currently the #1 most wanted individual, accused of having murdered Empress Maria.

If there were some fanatic patriots from San Antonio on board who were willing to take revenge for Empress Maria at any price, then this would be the best chance possible for them.

Unfortunately, all of the guests had also witnessed how Roland had crashed onto the airship’s deck. It was also natural that they could all see that he was seriously injured. It was impossible for Captain Noat to even try and keep this information from leaking.

In the end, Captain Noat could only make a few small arrangements for Roland’s protection.

Captain Noat hadn’t wasted his time at all. Indeed, the Saint-ranked monk Raikage, whom Captain Noat had requested to act as Roland’s bodyguard, caught two hot-blooded young men with poisoned daggers, trying to attack Roland on that very night.

But soon, Captain Noat found that he had overthought things. In just a few hours, Roland recovered consciousness and was healing at a visible rate. Right after that, Roland started yelling about how bored he was, and that he wanted to have some fun to pass the time while healing.

Captain Noat felt rather helpless as he sent his first mate and the three Legend-ranked airship guards to play cards with Roland in order to help him pass the time.

But, everyone quit playing cards with Roland within two hours.

The reason for this? This injured Strongest Holy Knight actually won all of everyone’s money in less than half an hour. His amazing gambling skills… er, cheating skills made everyone suspect if he was truly a Holy Knight who was supposed to have no desires and adhere to strict discipline.

Roland then said something that made it clear to Captain Noat that there was no need to protect him.

“You don’t need to protect me. Even if I’m currently injured, any existence that can threaten me would be capable of completely ignoring all of you.”

Although this was slightly depressing to hear, Captain Noat inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. If Roland died on his airship, he wouldn’t be able to take on the responsibility for that happening no matter what.

Happily, things remained peaceful after that night, and on the second day’s morning, Holy Knight Roland’s physical injuries had already completely disappeared. He even started directly gambling in the dining hall with the ordinary passengers…

Noat had indeed heard before about how powerful individuals would have many strange habits. For instance, Princess Rayne of the Mist Alliance was clearly a female, but had married several princesses and started a large female harem… For instance, Emperor Halent of Bardi would often start talking to stone statues whenever he was under too much pressure… For instance, his own country’s Auland Emperor had the habit of wearing female clothing, while the Auland Empress had the habit of wearing male clothing…

Of course, such rumors didn’t sound real at all to Noat. Typically, he would only smile upon hearing something like this, without treating it as real.

On slow and lengthy journeys, the male airship crew members could be even gossipier than female crew. Their favorite topic of discussion would be rumors regarding powerful individuals. After all, one of the best ways for coworkers to improve their friendship would be to gossip together about their bosses.

But now, it seemed that such rumors indeed had their reasons for existing. At the very least, this famous prince from the Northlands was just like the legends about him. He was definitely no proper rule-abiding Holy Knight at all.

The legends about Roland said that he was extremely knowledgeable and talented, but that he never used his knowledge for anything proper. It was said that he controlled more than 30% of all gambling industries and pornographic material production in all of the Northlands. The legendary mercenary group known as the Absolute Gentlemen Alliance was also supposed to be his fangs that he controlled the entire Northlands with.

Roland was in charge of military munitions deals, running a mercenary group, immigration for elves and beastmen, and so on. He would personally do all these things that ordinary people wouldn’t even dare to imagine.

Roland was known as the ruler in the shadows, the crownless king, the one person you absolutely couldn’t antagonize in the Northlands, the ruler of the Underground, the last Northlands Knight of the Mist, and so on. He had countless unofficial titles and nicknames.

There was a certain saying in the Northlands—you could antagonize any ruler there, but you absolutely wouldn’t be able to say a single bad thing about Roland. Otherwise, no matter who you were or where you were from, you wouldn’t possibly be able to leave alive.

“I really couldn’t have guessed that someone so famous and incredible is just like a hoodlum who loves to gamble. Not only that, he’s a Holy Knight who gambles and is obviously cheating. I couldn’t have even imagined… yet nobody’s ever even tried to question his character,” Captain Noat commented to himself.

Still, when comparing Roland to other saints or villains who all similarly had countless nicknames, Roland seemed to be extremely approachable and easy to get along with.

Noat was someone who had seen much in his life, having been a former military captain for Auland as well as a smuggler who had traveled the world.

In Noat’s job field, the most important thing was to be an accurate judge of characters. Noat had met countless others before, but had never seen anyone like Roland.

Noat had met other powerful individuals who were at Myth rank or Level 4. From what Noat saw, no matter what faction a powerful and undying individual was from, they all had one thing in common: such individuals wouldn’t really treat ordinary people as people at all. There were some powerful individuals who cared more about their reputation, so they would say nicer things, but they would still keep their distance from ordinary people.

This could be seen quite easily from their behavior. When eating, they would ask for the food to be brought to their room. They would want their own private shower room. Any request that they made, even if it was simply for a spice to add to their food, might need someone lower-ranking to run all over the place for them. The powerful individuals would even feel that this was only natural.

If the powerful individual originally had a noble status or powerful bloodline to begin with, then the individual would be even more arrogant. Even glancing at you would count as him giving face. No matter how nicely you talked to them, if you dared to prepare coarse rye bread for them as lunch, then the powerful individual would immediately become angry.

Yet Roland, who was clearly one of the most powerful individuals in the world, was acting so normally with ordinary people… No, he truly viewed himself as an ordinary person like everyone else. He was eating rye bread, drinking the cheapest wine, arm-wrestling with the alcoholics, refusing to pay up when he lost, and happily enjoying this type of life. In fact, he would even pretend to be drunk and cheat money from the alcoholic gamblers. Noat had never seen a Level 4 individual like Roland before.

“Ha, at the very least, he seems much better than any noble.”

A cold breeze blew past as a new morning started with the sun rising from the east. The wind would be coldest right before the sun rose, so Noat carefully adjusted the collar of his coat so that he would be a little warmer.

Noat was no longer worried about all the numerous things that he had heard as rumors before. None of the rumors would have much to do with him. Also, no matter what he felt about Roland, that wouldn’t affect him completing his task. Noat would carry out his duties properly as a former military man. His current duty was to safely transport the airship’s valued guests to their destination.

After passing by these snowy mountains, the airship would arrive in Bardi’s outskirts. With Bardi’s dragon knights patrolling the skies in their country, Noat would no longer have to worry about safety anymore.

Suddenly, Noat saw a familiar figure appear on the airship deck.

“Your Highness Roland? How come you’re up so early? Your injuries haven’t fully recovered yet. You should get some more rest. Weren’t you just inside…”

This person only glanced at Noat, causing him to instantly stop speaking. Although this person was identical in appearance to Roland, and had the same smile, this person’s smile carried completely different emotions.

Roland’s smile was one which expressed his friendliness and happiness. His smile was one that communicated his own emotions to others. Meanwhile, although this person was also smiling, he was enjoying his own delight from the bottom of his heart. His eyes didn’t value others’ existences at all. The words he said were nothing more than absolute commands which he expected to be carried out.

“Hey, I heard that my older brother is here, so I came to greet him. How about you show me where he is?”