"Well said. More tea?" The mayor reached for the teapot.
"I wouldn't say no." I smiled politely while accepting the hot drink into my tea bowl. "Has anything interesting happened in the city these past few days? How is your wife? And how's Kori?"
"The city is doing wonderfully. We've just finished bringing in an excellent cabbage harvest." Hmmm… somewhere deep in my memory, something stirred at the mention of cabbage. I couldn't quite remember what anymore, but cabbage had definitely been involved somehow.
"Naoki went to visit her parents. I keep trying to convince her to move them into the city, but unfortunately, no luck." He sighed. "As for Kori, I received a letter from her yesterday. They arrived safely on Kyoshi and have already selected a house for their 'embassy.' The local girls have also begun teaching her the warrior traditions of their island."
The mayor sighed again.
"I can't say I'm thrilled about the latter, but at least it's a relatively peaceful and useful outlet for her boundless energy."
"Yeah…" I couldn't help smirking as I remembered that reckless little lightning squirrel. "My condolences in advance to her future husband."
"Oh, come now, Master Chan. She's a very sweet and well-educated girl. As for her temperament, I'm sure time will smooth it out eventually," Morishita said with a shake of his head.
And suddenly it hit me that this girl was only a year or two younger than I was. The marriageable age here started at fifteen. And more importantly… maybe I'd been lingering in Yu Dao a bit too long.
Nope. The moment they finished the airship, I was heading off "after the Avatar," because I really didn't like the direction this conversation seemed to be taking.
Maybe it was paranoia.
But still—no thanks.
"Well then, someone's going to be very lucky," I replied, after which the conversation mercifully drifted back toward cabbage prices and the results of my inspections through the northern cities, towns, and villages.
Looks like I'd survived that one.
***
The frantic rush to finish refining the hot-air balloon took only two days.
Materials for the gondola—wood somewhat resembling cork, though heavier and sturdier—were found in the warehouses of several furniture workshops. The balloon itself caused no problems either; there was an abundance of canvas, silk, and even something suspiciously similar to liquid rubber for waterproofing.
The primary difficulty arose with the furnace used to heat the air. But the inspired Mechanist, now fully reassured that his fellow villagers were no longer in danger—and, in fact, that the first houses of their new settlement were already beginning to rise in the outskirts—worked together with the shipyard engineers to somehow crossbreed a hedgehog with a snake and, at breakneck speed, not only build another of the Mechanist's "furnaces," but also modify it using Fire Nation technology. The result increased efficiency by roughly ten percent and power output by a full twenty.
After all the tinkering, what emerged was a very strange hybrid. No longer quite a hot-air balloon, but not yet a true airship either. Though I really ought to hint to the engineers about helium someday… though where in the world I was supposed to get helium was another question entirely.
The machine could carry up to ten fully equipped people or around fifteen wearing "nothing but their pants" without losing speed or maximum altitude. Theoretically, if everyone squeezed together, wasn't in any particular hurry, and flew veeery low to the ground, we could even travel with the entire entourage aboard.
But that would've been outright perverse.
After loading the "secret weapon" onto the frigate, we bid farewell to the exhausted yet satisfied engineers. The Mechanist very insistently requested that I send him a report on how the machine's trials went.
We also said goodbye to Morishita, who over the course of those two days hadn't once gone to bed. He'd simultaneously been organizing housing and supplies for the new residents, allocating resources to the engineers—secrecy and all that, meaning the circle of people with the necessary clearance was extremely limited, which naturally forced everyone involved to juggle ten tasks at once—and continuing to perform his normal duties as mayor.
"Where shall we set our course, Commodore Chan?"
"South, Captain Lee." Another one! I know half the nation seems to be named Lee, but the name was honestly starting to wear on me. "Our first destination is Kyoshi Island."
"As you command, Commodore!" The ship's senior officer pressed a fist to his chest.
Truthfully, I would've preferred to see Tandao in his place. But effectively taking the ship away from its rightful captain would've meant insulting Lee, while also pulling my former first officer away from the important work of supervising repairs on the cruiser… Possible? Certainly. But why create resentment for no reason?
I'd been through a great deal alongside the scarred veteran, and I trusted his abilities completely, but we weren't expecting a fight, and Lee, no matter how you looked at it, undoubtedly knew his own ship better than some outsider, even a more experienced one.
"Kyoshi?" Suki perked up immediately. "You want to visit my home?"
"It would be nice, but unfortunately we'll only be able to stop by your homeland in passing. We've got a mountain of things to deal with." Seeing the disappointment on the girl's face, I finally relented. "But half a day or even a full day won't make much difference."
"Thank you!" I was rewarded with a perfectly chaste kiss on the cheek.
Mmm. So this was what it felt like to be whipped.
"I'm going to tell the girls!" the fearsome warrior declared before dashing off, leaving me alone on deck admiring the ocean scenery.
(End of Chapter)
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