As Xia Ya finished speaking, the wine cellar was quiet for a while.
Nico slowly raised his head, wondering if he had heard wrongly.
"What?"
"I did find something."
Xia Ya slowly stood up and walked behind the sofa. There was a curtain there. He slowly opened the curtain, revealing the scene behind it. Behind it was a large painting.
Yes, a pure painting, framed, looks exquisite.
"The situation was too urgent and there was a storm, so I didn't have time to take out the camera to take pictures. I could only draw the situation based on my memory." Xia Ya said.
Nico and Nauda stared blankly at the scene in front of them.
That is not a sky island, to be precise, it is a cloud.
A spiral cloud was different from the other clouds, like a huge jar, floating in the sky. In the clouds, there was a raging storm, with thunder and lightning shining in it.
Nico had never seen such a raging storm. Faintly, he could even see some dragon-like lights and shadows flowing in the storm.
However, the most eye-catching thing is the protruding part of the branches at the top of the clouds, which are full of green - that is not something that would appear in a storm at all.
Nico thought of the giant tree in the old photo his uncle had taken.
Suddenly, Nico suddenly realized that the picture in front of him was just a motionless oil painting, not even a photo.
"Your painting skills are so good." Nauda sighed, "It's just like the real thing."
"Have you really seen it with your own eyes?" Nico asked.
"Of course." Xia Ya raised his eyebrows and said, "Why did I lie to you?"
Nico continued, "How did you find it?"
His tone was a little urgent, with a kind of suppressed excitement.
"There is some luck involved." Xia Ya returned to his position, "I encountered a storm and was blown here."
"My uncle also encountered a storm." Nico thought thoughtfully.
"So, do you need my airship?" Xia Ya said.
Nico was silent for a moment and said, "I'm not someone who would trouble others."
He smiled bitterly, "But I think this is the best way."
"You don't have to think too much." Xia Ya said, "For me, this is just a piece of cake."
"Want to rest for a while before leaving?" he asked.
"They are definitely still looking for us around now. It's only a matter of time before they find us here."
"I don't think you should worry about this." Xia Ya said quietly.
"We are already very grateful that you saved us." Nico said seriously, "We can't cause you any more trouble."
Xia Ya shrugged and did not continue speaking. He just stood up silently and said, "Follow me."
With that said, he led them away from here and walked back to the tavern. He led the two of them through the corridor on the side of the tavern, came to the castle, and opened the door to the courtyard.
But what this door leads to is not the courtyard, but the back of the row of houses that Nico and the others passed through when they fled.
Behind is a large plain, and in the distance are continuous mountains.
In the courtyard at the back door, there is an empty boat docked.
Different from the elegant clipper he imagined, this was just a wooden cabin with an old scarlet airbag bolted to it and a set of rusty engine pods. Like it was pieced together from garbage.
"It hasn't been used for a long time." Xia Ya said, "I don't know if it can still be started."
Char led them up the gangplank and into the long and narrow cabin that was filled with the smell of dust. As the gentleman said, this empty boat looked like it had not been used for a long time.
This cabin is just a narrow wooden pipe with a flight deck at the front, cabins at the rear, and a series of other messy small cabins in the middle.
They had to stay in a semi-crouched position to avoid hitting their heads against the hanging cabinets and the dangerous-looking bundles of wires hanging from the dashboard above the cabin.
"Are you sure you can control this ship?" Char said.
"I'll study it for a while."
Nico fumbled on the console, then turned on some switches and pulled up some controls. Then various electronic instruments lit up with a dark green light, filling the cabin with light like an aquarium.
"That's it," Nico said.
"A week ago, I wanted to take a long trip, but I was delayed by some things. So there is still some food in the cabin, and there is water in the water tank. They are all clean. You can use them as you like without worrying about it. The fuel is also filled up." Char said.
Nico looked at Char, "Then do you want to go with us?"
"I'm old and can't bear the trouble." Xia Ya said with a smile.
"Thank you." Nico said again, "I will return your airship safely. If you meet my father coming to see me, explain my situation to him."
"No problem." Xia Ya said.
He turned and left here.
Nico pulled the last lever, and the creaking and exhaling sounds of the valves began to echo throughout the cabin.
Xia Ya just stood in the courtyard, quietly watching the empty boat rise slowly.
The fireplace behind him slowly rotated, and Calcifer on the hearth looked at the empty boat with the flickering firelight.
"Can this thing made from garbage really fly?"
"Why can't it fly?" Xia Ya said displeasedly, "The silicon airbag comes from a clipper ship of Beichen, and the twin-engine Carlo aviation engine comes from a gunboat of Britannia. They are all the best. You can go to the trash. Can we find these things?"
Perhaps it was Hal's fate that distorted part of Char's aesthetics.
Just look at Moving Castle and you will know that Chara particularly likes this patchwork punk style, which he calls "artistic".
This Sky Court was made by him himself, and he had some mechanical knowledge after recovering Tony's fate.
Calcifer flickered the firelight without words...
…
As it rose into the sky, Nauda felt his stomach turn.
She stumbled to a porthole and saw that the town below seemed to be falling downwards, like a model of a town on display in a museum.
She saw Jackman and others, who were nearby, next to the airship factory, and seemed to have expected that they would choose to leave in the airship.
This is quite normal. Among them is Jerry, a local, who is very aware of Nico's abilities and his relationship with the airship factory.
Suddenly, he seemed to notice something, and slowly raised his head to look at the sky.
Nauda hid suddenly, her heart beating violently, and she didn't know if they saw it.
"What's wrong with you?" Jerry asked curiously, realizing that Jackman seemed to have discovered something.
"Whose airship is that?" Jackman raised his finger and pointed to the sky.
Jerry raised his head and found an empty boat floating in the sky.
"I don't know." Jerry shook his head and said, "It doesn't look like it's from a big airship factory. It looks like it was put together with some parts."
Jackman seemed to realize something and quickly looked at the others, "Get on the airship! Chase it!"
Unlike an airplane, an airship does not need to be watched from the console all the time. Hydrogen will keep the airship stable in the air and will not crash into the ground due to unmanned control.
Just make sure it goes in a fixed direction.
As the sky gradually darkened, they took a bath, slept, and ate something, and Nauda felt that life might not be so bad after all.
At sunrise, the sunlight shines on the clouds, like golden mountains, and the airship flies among these golden peaks. Looking out the window of the airship, the scenery is magnificent. Looking at all this, I can temporarily put those painful memories behind my mind.
During breakfast, Nauda drank hot chocolate with Nico on the deck, and she found that she liked it.
Skyboats have not been popular for a long time. She must have ridden in a skyboat in the past, but she was still very young at that time and can't remember it at all.
Now seeing the golden clouds, some vague memories gradually emerged in her mind. It was a very beautiful feeling.
Perhaps it was because she had a good rest last night that she felt a little refreshed.
She slept in the luggage compartment below the air bag.
This was a one-person boat, so there was no room to sleep, so Nico made her a bed using some wool from the cabin, which was very warm.
"If you arrive in Beichen and find your aunt, what are you going to do?" Nico asked while drinking hot chocolate.
Nauda showed a little confusion, "I haven't thought of this yet."
"It's never a good thing to be dependent on someone else," Nico said. "Beichen has the best university in the world, and the better the school, the cheaper it is. Basically, tuition is free, and if you do well in your studies, there are scholarships."
"Are you going to college?" Nauda murmured softly, "What about you?"
"I also have plans to go to Beichen." Nico said, "But..."
He was speechless. Beichen was separated from Croatia by a large land. Travel expenses were on the one hand, living expenses on the other, and there were many complex and uncontrollable issues.
"Let me show you what I found last night."
Nico stood up slowly and led her to the console.
Nauda studied this place last night. It was a confusing row of knobs, switches and joysticks. They used Beichen and English. It is estimated that only Nico can understand these.
"Look at this." Nico pointed to the dashboard above his head, which had several maps with wind directions fixed on it using magnets.
There is a red line extending from Britannia, and it seems that it was drawn later.
"What's this?"
"It should have been drawn by the gentleman when he was traveling in this empty boat. These are the routes he took." Nico said.
He pointed to a corner of the map and said, "Look here."
On a certain route of this red line, the junction of the Eurasian continent was emphatically marked with a black dot.
"What is this black spot for?" Nauda said.
"I am now adjusting to go to this channel." Nico said, "It should arrive this afternoon, and by then, there should be a result."
Nauda nodded.
Suddenly, she seemed to have discovered something. She looked through the porthole at the clouds outside, and a flag was looming in the clouds.
At the same time, a hissing noise came from the console, just like the sound a radio makes when it does not receive a channel, but the sound is more messy.
Nico's expression changed, and he immediately stepped forward and turned off the radio system.
But then, under Nauda's gaze, an airship larger than theirs emerged from the clouds not far away, like a whale rushing out of the sea.
Nauda could even see Jackman looking over here through the porthole of the airship.
At the same time, she also saw the group of men in black quickly coming outside, pointing the cannon on the airship at them, and then.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Continuous shells were fired over, and several shells whizzed past without causing any damage. The fourth one exploded in the cabin at the stern, causing the cabin to shake like a pendulum, and the fifth one was even closer.
Without any hesitation, Nico directly pulled up a long brass lever, and the air valve rumbled in the airship airbag above.
The airship began to descend and plunged into the thick white clouds. Nauda's ear pressure suddenly increased.
Down, down again, and then the clouds became thinner and parted to both sides. Nauda saw the endless wilderness spread out below her, like a crumpled brown-gray paper with strips of blue cut out of it. It looks like a long strip of color, and to the north is an endless ocean—it should be the Black Sea.
Although the airship behind them was a military boat, their speed was actually faster than the airship.
It should be because their ship is smaller, so the speed is faster.
But even so, if you want to completely get rid of them in the air, you must keep distance. Otherwise, small airships like them have no advantage in this kind of attrition war of chasing each other, and engine heat will also be a problem.
"Boom~"
At this time, the thunder from the distant clouds attracted their attention.
The sky gradually became dense with dark clouds, and a storm was coming. The originally clear sky turned dark, and the air was filled with moisture.
The strong wind lowered the branches below, causing ripples in the black sea in the distance. Nico worked hard to control the airship to keep it moving.
But strong winds slowed their progress, bringing them closer and closer to the airship behind them.
Some shells even exploded directly beside them.
Nico slowly raised his head, raised his heart, and pushed the copper rod away again. With the whirring sound of the air valve, the airship rose again, and actually crashed directly into the dark clouds above. .
Thick dark clouds parted on both sides of them, thunder and lightning echoed faintly in their ears, and the thick water vapor made Nauda feel that the clothes he had just changed were starting to get wet.
But soon, the airship with full power rushed out of the not too thick cloud layer. Next, what was revealed in front of them made Nico and Nauda open their eyes slightly.
A huge tornado formed by white clouds appeared in front of their eyes, like a huge jar, floating in the sky above the dark clouds.
It was exactly the same as the painting they saw under the wine cellar! (End of chapter)
