Chapter 206: Chapter 206: Tie Me Down

July 18th, 625

After I jumped out of the plane Sawn came walking over, as did several other summoners. They all checked various parts of the plane. Testing was still being done and they wanted to know tolerances. I had pushed this beast to the limits today, so it was perfect material for them to look at.

“Good job, John. Unfortunately for you I have bad news.”

“What’s that?”

“The King wants to meet you.”

“Well shit.”

I sighed, Sawn shrugging.

“He didn’t care about you being weird so you have no excuses. You just have to greet the man and you can go get the helicopter.”

I turned and started walking away, “You said the Taveras were in the second hall? I’ll go say hi.”

“What? I didn’t say that. You can’t disregard the King!”

“I’m an eccentric! I’ve already greeted him in my mind!”

“John!”

“Oh look, a doorway.”

I threw open the door and left the hangar with a bit of stealth for good measure, quickly making my way to the second hall.

There were many servants running around on the first floor of the building so I went up and found the hall itself on the top floor.

Once I entered all eyes fell on me. I recognized many people, most of whom seemed to be talking business before I arrived.

I suddenly turned my head, seeing Talexia and her daughter Faey standing next to the doorway against the wall. Talexia had decided to stay in this hall instead of the main one where all the other nobles were.

A few people started walking up, but I smiled at the two ladies first, giving Faey a hug before turning to Talexia.

“So? What’d you think?”

“I think you’re insane.”

“Did you see me wave?”

“Apologies, I was too busy preparing for a hit from a flying hunk of metal. You know, for a summoner you sure do love to put yourself in deadly situations. Do you think you’re secretly a knight or something?”

She put her hands on her hips in a chiding stance, making me laugh. She was too pretty for me to take her seriously when she started scolding, “Hey, it’s perfectly safe if you know what you’re doing. I built that damn thing so you better believe I know it inside and out.”

She scrutinized me for a second before taking a step and reaching up, combing some of my hair.

“It’s mighty impressive work, John. I can already see the possibilities. I wouldn’t mind taking a ride myself, but pull a stunt like that while I’m in there and I’ll toss you out no matter how high we are.”

“Hoho, it’s a good thing I’m prepared for that. Ever heard of skydiving?”

“No, and I don’t want to know. God forbid you pull me into doing that too.”

“Doing what, something exciting?”

I heard another voice, turning and finding Shadowbane. I was surprised to see her. The last time was a couple years ago at the Whetted City.

She looked a little older, a little sharper, early into Authority 8 now.

I smiled at her, “Hey Shadow. It’s good to see you again.”

“You as well John. That was a cool thing you did. I saw you wave.”

“At least someone did.”

“Heh, I’ve gotten faster since we last met. Greetings, Duchess.”

Shadowbane curtsied toward Talexia, the two exchanging greetings before Talexia started a conversation. I took that as the queue to leave and turned toward some of the others.

There were several familiar faces here. One of them was Patriarch Tavera. Another was Lady Luna from Polaris. Then there was Madam Willow, Vetsmon’s mother. Curiously she wasn’t with her husband.

After talking a bit with the others I went over to her. She sat alone at a small table for two, so I went to the other seat.

“Madam.”

“John! It’s so good to see you. Please sit.”

I took the seat, smiling.

“It’s been a while. How’s the Holy See these days?”

“Thanks to the exceptional Templars, same as always. You’ve apparently been mighty busy though. I’ve heard of your exploits, and now you’ve gone and built a flying machine.”

“Well once I figured out the Mana Engine it was a piece of cake. All these things come down to is figuring out how to make things spin. Get that down and you can move the world.”

“Apparently so. Nevertheless, genius must be appreciated. My husband sent me since he’s busy but we would both like to extend our congratulations to you.”

A servant came around, placing a glass for me on the table. Willow raised her own, and I mirrored.

“To your revolutionary achievement. May your genius be inscribed into the annals of history.”

“Cheers.”

We clinked glasses, taking a sip before setting them down.

I sighed, “May we live long enough to see it. Unfortunately I developed the plane for the sake of being weaponized. If negotiations go well we should be seeing it on the battlefield sooner rather than later.”

“It certainly has the potential. My husband didn’t want me to say anything, but between you and me…”

She leaned forward with a whisper. Weirdly, her voice went straight into my mind, even though I swore I heard her talk normally. Her mouth moved and everything but there was no sound to register.

“The Templars are looking to buy a lot of these. Don’t be surprised if you get offers to come train some people to use them. I’m basically only here symbolically since they’ve got plenty of others watching, but I was asked to ask you something. Feel free to refuse an answer.”

She put her hand up to her mouth, making me lean in instinctively.

“How do they work?”

“The planes?”

“The engines.”

“Hm.”

I smiled a bit, leaning back and staring at her.

Give away the secret to my Mana Engine? I wasn’t actually totally opposed. My goal was to strengthen humanity as a whole, and the Church has its own military force. To enable an entire national power on top of the Kingdom to produce planes would double how effective my invention was at hurting the Scourge, at the minimum. I didn’t believe Sawn would have all the capital necessary to arm two militaries with these, not to mention the fact that the Kingdom might do something to keep the Church from getting their hands on them.

I activated my telepathy, which she received with ease, “My Mana Engine utilizes the repulsive forces between two Crystals in order to generate rotational force. In the case of the plane, attach one to the body, and one to the propeller. The force is transmitted to both sides but the free body, the propeller, will spin.”

“Two crystals? Working against each other?”

“Yes.”

“But it makes them spin?”

“Yes.”

“...I wonder what enchantments you possibly could’ve come up with to make that work. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“I took inspiration from the Rails,” My hand subconsciously raised my glass to my mouth, wetting my palette, “Imagine two forces pushing up against each other, but then tilting slightly and slipping past the other. Now imagine that constantly happening, making them spin. That’s theoretically how it works.”

She smiled sweetly, “I appreciate the hint. You should consider joining the Church, John. We can provide you with a lot more than what you have now in the Kingdom’s military. You also won’t be scorned by shortsighted fools.”

I shrugged, “I don’t mind the challenge, and honestly, they need my help here. As much as I loathe the nobles who do nothing but sit on their ass all day, the rest of the soldiers need someone who’s going to try and look out for them on the battlefield. Me and my planes will do that, even more so if I can develop the weapons to go with them.”

“I see. That’s awfully noble of you. If only everyone were like that.”

“If everyone were like me then humanity would be on a timer. They might take out the Scourge but how long they’d survive after that is questionable.”

She chuckled, “Are you saying you’re self-destructive?”

I scratched my chin, “I don’t think so. Foolish though, yes. I’m not always the smartest man.”

“Hoho, I think every man is a bit foolish. It takes a woman’s touch to set them straight, most often.”

“Shit, I can toast to that.”

We both laughed and clinked our glasses together once more.

……

After some time conversing with everyone I felt like talking with and avoiding everyone I didn’t, I went out to bring the helicopter around.

I landed it in front of the buildings. The helicopter that I had designed for this occasion was a single rotor passenger helicopter with enough space to fit 16 people at a time. There were large windows along the body to allow people to get a good view, built with the wow factor in mind.

After landing it I called out the first group of passengers. Thankfully the King didn’t have any interest in going first so I was able to bring on those I wanted to. Among them was Talexia, Faey, Willow, Patriarch Tavera, Lady Luna, Shadowbane, and several others from the second hall I had hidden away in. Sawn was also there, eager to continue telling me to go meet the king.

Everyone boarded nervously, and I sat in the main pilot seat while watching them file in, the helicopter off.

I waved at Faey once she was on, “Hey, come here.”

“Hm?”

The ashy haired girl, now 16 years old, looked at me confusedly. I pat the seat next to me.

“You’re going to be my co-pilot.”

“I-I don’t know how to fly…”

“Of course you don’t. Get over here.”

I waved a few more times, Faey nervously getting up and planting down beside me.

I turned to the others, “Alright everyone, sit back and relax. I got this.”

Faey and I turned around, facing the control panel. First I hit the master power, the panel lighting up along with the passenger cabin. A summoner within the group closed the hatch.

I went through the motions, activating the Mana Engine and engaging the gear so that the tail rotor went on first, engaging the main gear right after so that they both synced up and spun.

I set the throttle to idle, letting it spin all the way up, smiling at Faey. Thankfully because the cabin was insulated and had magic to deafen outside noise, the blades weren’t deafening.

“You know, it’s really simple to fly. All you gotta do is make the thingies spin really fast with these buttons. Then you use this stick to control the blades, these pedals to turn, and these two levers to go up and down. Wanna try?”

She turned to me silently before shaking her head really fast. I laughed a bit, thinking about how much she looked like her sister before hitting the throttle and adjusting the collective.

We quickly caught air and rose. I used the pedals to angle us in the direction of the Capital before tilting the helicopter forward with the stick and flying off.

We picked up speed, but a helicopter wasn’t that fast, underwhelming compared to what I just pulled off in the plane. This one still sat happily at around 120 miles an hour though, and it had nearly double the fuel time compared to the plane. It still resulted in a shorter range but that also wasn’t counting the cargo this thing could carry.

Before long we were approaching the Capital. By that time we were already at 15 thousand feet, which was the maximum I cared to get this thing. Everyone was already smiling and awed, but when we got over the Capital they gasped. I could almost see Faey’s eyes sparkle.

The city looked so small in our view, yet massive when compared to the landscape around it. There were a dozen roads going in and out, everyone able to see the little people going across them with wagons.

I glanced behind me, “Hey Duchess.”

“Hm?” Talexia looked over, as did several others.

“You want to know what skydiving is?”

“No.”

“I do!” Shadowbane raised her hand, making me smile.

“Skydiving is when you get to a high altitude like this, and you jump out. Then you take a parachute, a giant piece of cloth, and open it up while falling, letting it unfold and catch air. Then you glide all the way down with it to the floor. It’s fun!”

“That’s insanity.”

“And yet fun. I’d do it right now if I had another pilot to take my place.”

I glanced at Sawn, who turned his head away. I had tried to get another pilot trained, him being one of them, so I didn’t have to do all the flying. Nobody had the time though, and he saw no reason to put one aside to learn since I already knew.

I’d have to train one before I left but I was still annoyed. I was a glorified chauffeur, and this would be just the first of several groups I’d have to take into the sky.

After getting a nice view from so high up I hit the collective and started taking us down, a handful of minutes going by to drop down to the level of the Magic Spire.

Now everyone could get a close up view of everything from above. We caught plenty of attention from the citizens in the city, passengers in the back murmuring when they saw their headquarters or estate, their faces glued to the windows.

I turned to Faey, “I could land this thing inside the city.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Here, watch.”

I adjusted our course and found the Black Spider Hotel. Its top was flat so it was the perfect spot.

I came in above it, slowly guiding the helicopter down, adjusting four different things at once while stressing my visualization abilities to give me enough spatial awareness to land this properly.

“Sorry Key Master…”

I muttered and touched down, keeping the blade running.

“Alright everyone! If you want to take a step outside, go ahead. Just keep your head down, those blades can get a bit low, and you don’t want them taking your head off. Unless you’re a knight. In which case, don’t ruin my helicopter.”

I got a few chuckles before the hatch opened. Everyone filed out one by one, stepping on top of the Black Spider Hotel.

I set everything to idle and got out as well. Everyone was looking around, but soon their heads turned toward something. My gaze followed, finding the Key Master standing across from us.

I smiled and walked over, “Key Master! Sorry about the surprise visit.”

After looking at everyone with a neutral face, he returned me a smile, “It’s no issue, John. I just didn’t think I’d have to greet you on top of my Hotel. Is that one of your helicopters?”

“It is! Impressive, isn’t it? It can perform vertical take offs and landings, so I can bring this thing down anywhere with enough clearance.”

“It seems so. Looks like all those promotions I saw from Sawn Industries weren’t lying. You’ve truly brought flight to the world.”

“Yessir. You want a ride? There’s another seat available.”

He shook his head, “That’s quite alright, John. I’m more than okay with my feet on the ground.”

“I don’t blame you. I can come back around here later though. It’s always worth at least a try. It’s not a perspective many people have ever seen, after all.”

“That is true.”

He smiled and bowed.

“Fly safe, John. I wish everyone a pleasant time on top of the Black Spider Hotel.”

A few people silently waved at him, the Key Master’s body vibrating a bit before he melted into the black metal rooftop below our feet. My brows raised.

“That’s a new one.”

I sensed nothing, not even a fluctuation in Aura. It seemed the Key Master was more unfathomable than I thought.

With that, everyone returned to the chopper. The ride was over and I had many more groups to fly.

……

“You’re meeting the King.”

“I’m really close to shooting this guy.”

“Shoot him or not, you’re meeting the King.”

“Don’t touch me. I’m going.”

I smacked the hand of the knight who was trying to escort me before adjusting the pistol holster on my flight suit. He was apparently a part of the Royal Guard, an elite group of soldiers who directly served the Royal Family.

His hand pulled away, returning to his side as I started complying. I really didn’t want to meet the King but now they were forcing me to.

I decided I just needed to get it over with and, hopefully, never see the guy again. God forbid I actually had to bow or pledge my fealty.

Sawn and I walked, the knight behind us as we arrived at the main hall. I had gone and flown people for 3 hours and it seemed the King was going to leave soon because he was getting impatient to meet me. I had even done the weapons demonstration, nothing but flying a slightly modified plane with some people in the back firing turrets. It wasn’t that impressive to me since the flight itself was boring but it sufficiently showed off how it could be used in warfare for the dumb ones with no imagination.

Sawn had grabbed me with the Royal Guard before I could head back out on the helicopter again, so now there was no avoiding it.

I saw the King on his throne when we entered, most people going quiet. We approached.

Sawn bowed, “Your Majesty, this is John Cooper, the inventor.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The two of us looked at each other in silence for a second.

King Distrion Jealven Alphon. He looked decent, only Authority 11, and with an Aura that I could sense the boundaries of. That meant he never surpassed the Great Barrier and his talent ended at Authority 10.

I had barely heard of him before this, had never seen him, and have heard little about his character. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but my biases placed me on the pessimistic side.

I stood there, one second of silence turning into five as the King said nothing. I glanced to the side and saw that Sawn was still awkwardly bowing. Seemed I was supposed to bow as well, show my subservience before the King deigned to speak with me, as was tradition.

There was a man beside the King, a chiseled old fellow with a gray beard and a bristling Aura sitting at Authority 11. He was probably a thousand times more combat effective than the King himself, that much I could feel. I could also see the Queen but there was nothing impressive about her.

That chiseled old man took a step forward, intending on breaking the silence. I could sense a dozen other people in the room put their guards up, anxiety spiking substantially. I wondered why they reacted to this man so violently.

That’s when I got a quick voice transmission from Willow. She had apparently followed behind us. I could sense her in the back corner of the room.

“That’s the Marshal of the King’s Guard. He’s an incredibly decorated warrior, immensely dangerous, and should be advancing to Authority 12 soon. Don’t make him angry.”

I noted her words and glanced at the man again, suddenly noticing that I couldn’t sense the depth of his Aura.

His gruff voice came out, “Present yourself, and acknowledge the Dragon King according to the Old Law of Majesty.”

I stared at him for a second. I had naught a single clue what the Old Law was so I decided to default to what I was taught by their institution.

I clicked my heel and snapped off a sharp salute, looking straight ahead, “Lieutenant Colonel Cooper, reporting.”

The old Guard glanced at the King, who smiled a bit.

“At ease. Cooper, I’ve heard of your exploits in the military. It is rare that we ever see a summoner who fights so well.”

My rigid stance immediately disappeared, my gaze falling on the King, “I’m lucky to be given the power I have. Wasting it would be criminal.”

“Indeed. And yet you’ve outshined everything you’ve ever done with your invention. I’ve realized that these planes of yours will cause sweeping changes across the Kingdom and its military. This is why, in anticipation of great things to come, I’ve prepared something for you.”

He leaned forward, “John Cooper, your genius has been recognized. While there are many formalities to entertain, I want to bestow this offering now. Will you become a Viscount of the Kingdom of Dragon Tongue? Bound by Honor and Blood, will you bestow your name Cooper upon our Majesty and accept the role and responsibility of nobility, bringing your fortune upon all of humanity?”

My brows hardly moved, the hall dead silent as everyone waited for my response. Perhaps I should’ve expected this, but I hadn’t really thought of this as a possibility in the first place.

On one hand, if I became a proper noble upraised by the King himself, Umara and I probably wouldn’t have a hard time getting married. I could sense Talexia in the back, her anxiety noticeably spiking as she bore a hole in my back with her gaze.

Fortunately for her, my answer was automatic.

I looked the King in the eye, “My apologies, your Majesty. I don’t think it’s suitable for me to become a Viscount.”

“No?” He was genuinely surprised, “Why is that?”

“Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a commoner but I have little interest in becoming nobility. Money, fame, and power aren’t my chief desires. Even the planes I’ve built, which will obviously revolutionize the world as we know it, were built so that they could become a weapon against the Scourge. Call me simple-minded but I’m dedicated to that fight, and there’s little else that holds my interest enough to distract me from it. Becoming a noble would do just that, distract me.”

I spoke plainly but in my mind, it was an obvious excuse. I was dedicated to the fight but I loved being rich as well. Thankfully with my invention I didn’t have to become a noble to rake in digits.

Trying to tie me down with nobility? The King could suck me off soft. It was an insult to think I’d be so stupid. And it could be said my rejection, no matter how ‘noble’ it sounded, was a big middle finger to his face.

Most importantly, if I became a noble, I’d have to pay taxes.

Silence pervaded, and I blurted out in perfect English.

“Fuck all that mess. You can tax this dick, fedboi.”