The Operators busily working on the landing pad below caught the sound of Amiya's voice drifting down from the sky.
Looking up in surprise, they were stunned to see their young Executive Leader actually soaring through the air. A collective sigh of relief echoed across the platform once they saw how easily and effortlessly she glided alongside her blonde companion.
After waving cheerful greetings to the crew members down below, Amiya flew off toward other sections of the landship under Flandre's guidance.
The two glided from the bow to the stern, circling from the high watchtower down to the rear helipads. It was the very first time Amiya had ever observed the sweeping superstructure of Rhodes Island from such an elevated perspective. Once her initial wave of vertigo faded, it was replaced by an overwhelming sense of wonder and novelty.
The pair circled and looped through the skies above the mobile fortress for over an hour before finally settling back down onto the metal plating of the main deck.
When her boots touched the ground, Amiya's cheeks were flushed with a vibrant rosy tint; it was clear that experiencing flight was unlike anything she had ever known.
A crowd of nearby Operators quickly gathered around, eagerly asking what it felt like to soar above the ship.
Amiya nodded enthusiastically, declaring how incredibly fun it was. Standing beside her, Flandre looked around at the curious crowd with bright eyes. "Does anyone else want to experience what it feels like to fly?"
"Is... is that really okay?" An Elafia girl in the front row asked, her interest thoroughly piqued by Flandre's offer. She stared at the young Blood Demon with wide, curious eyes.
Flandre reached out a small hand with a beaming smile. "Of course!"
Seeing the friendly gesture, the Elafia girl broke into a broad smile and extended her own hand. "My name is Mimi."
Flandre clasped her hand firmly. A second later, amidst a chorus of startled exclamations from the surrounding crowd, Flandre launched off the deck, carrying Mimi smoothly up into the sky!
"My name is Flandre! You can just call me Flandre!" she announced cheerfully, pulling Mimi higher into the rushing air currents.
Unlike the strict safety precautions established for Amiya, Scout—who was still watching from the high watchtower—didn't impose rigid altitude or distance limits for the adult Operators.
And so, the afternoon transformed into a continuous joyride service, with Flandre taking a new companion for a ten-minute stroll through the clouds every round.
However, considering Flandre's young age and female gender, the Operators who stepped forward to participate were exclusively female. The male Operators could only stand along the deck railing, staring up with profound envy. But since taking flight required holding Flandre's hand the entire time, none of them dared to volunteer.
After all, the Rhodes Island Legal Department made no distinction between direct current or alternating current when enforcing conduct guidelines; their standard disciplinary recourse was simply direct electrocution.
"Can your team replicate that kind of flight Arts?"
Down on the deck plating, Logos turned to Pith beside him, his voice low and thoughtful.
Pith adjusted her glasses, staring intently at the trajectory of Flandre's ascent. "Achieving short-term levitation or burst flight isn't particularly difficult; there has been extensive academic research conducted on the topic before. The real challenge lies in sustaining long-distance flight while carrying another person's weight effortlessly, as Flandre is doing."
She paused, her expression becoming serious. "If we could reliably achieve that level of aerial mobility, then on the battlefield..."
She trailed off, but both Logos and Ace—who had just strolled over—as well as the surrounding Elite Operators, understood her unspoken implication immediately.
Even if only one or two personnel in a tactical squad possessed the ability to fly like Flandre, the overall strategic mobility and rapid-response capabilities of the entire unit would increase by a whole order of magnitude.
As things stood across Terra, aerial movement suffered from fatal vulnerabilities. Because firearms were strictly monopolized and restricted by Laterano, the development of heavy crossbows and specialized long-range bows—which served as firearm replacements—had reached a state of lethal perfection. If a Caster couldn't fly as high, fast, and nimble as Flandre, soaring into open air was nothing short of offering oneself as a sitting duck to enemy marksmen.
It wasn't that the land's militaries hadn't researched flight Arts before; it was simply that unless a Caster could achieve Flandre's sheer speed and effortless grace, taking to the sky lacked practical combat value.
Pith continued, "Moreover, sustaining flight Arts imposes extreme physiological strain on a standard Caster. After a flight like Flandre's, the Originium cell concentration within a normal operator's bloodstream would spike by at least a full percentage point from Arts overexertion. In short, we currently lack the capability to replicate this."
"However," Pith added, her eyes gleaming behind her lenses, "it is worth conducting structured research in this direction. After all, if Rhodes Island could form a dedicated aerial mobility squad, the boost to our strategic effectiveness would be immense."
Flandre had no idea that her simple passenger flights had sparked a brand-new research directive among Rhodes Island's senior leadership. She was having the absolute time of her life carrying her new companions into the open sky.
Over the course of a single afternoon, she managed to become acquainted with dozens of Rhodes Island Operators.
By the time the dinner chime echoed across the deck, Flandre descended with the crowd, still looking thoroughly unsated.
As for Amiya, after spending a bit of time watching the flights from the deck, she had politely bidden farewell to Flandre and returned to her executive office. She still had an enormous stack of administrative duties awaiting her attention, and seeing Flandre surrounded by friendly companions allowed her to leave with complete peace of mind.
Upon reaching the bustling cafeteria, Flandre easily located her sister's table.
"Sister!" Flandre hopped over with boundless energy, throwing her arms around Remilia in a warm hug.
Looking down at her sister's radiant smile, a gentle curve touched Remilia's lips. "Flandre seems to be in a wonderful mood."
Flandre nodded enthusiastically. "Mhm! Flandre made so many brand-new friends this afternoon!" She pointed across the dining hall toward a large table where a group of female Operators were seated together.
Noticing the gazes of the Scarlet household turned toward them, the Operators smiled warmly and waved over in friendly greeting.
"Oh? What else did you get up to today?" Remilia asked, looking down at her.
Flandre launched into a animated recounting of her afternoon aerial adventures above the landship's deck. Remilia listened quietly, nodding along.
Of the five members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion current party, Patchouli Knowledge cared exclusively for rare texts she had yet to digest, Sakuya Izayoi had eyes for no one outside the mansion's household (specifically Remilia), and her own noble disposition wasn't suited for casual socializing with ordinary folks.
Her original arrangement had been for Hong Meiling to leverage her connections within the Convalescent Garden to cultivate goodwill with Rhodes Island. She certainly hadn't expected that while Meiling had made no significant headway yet, Flandre would naturally hit it off with the vessel's crew on her very first day out.
Looking down at the little golden head boasting so proudly beside her, Remilia couldn't resist reaching out to fondly ruffle her hair. "Alright, sit down properly and eat your meal!"
"Okay!" Flandre immediately sat up straight in the chair right beside Remilia.
Patchouli, sitting across from them, inquired about a few details regarding the flight Arts before nodding thoughtfully to herself.
"After dinner, I shall take Flandre down to inspect the central library," Remilia mentioned quietly. "There are quite a few rare volumes archived here. Make sure you do not go wandering off late into the night."
She offered the gentle reminder, mindful that the afternoon's high-profile display would likely draw even greater scrutiny from Rhodes Island's intelligence network toward their group.
"Understood!" Flandre responded, though she hadn't given the warning a single second of thought; her entire universe of attention was currently hyper-focused on the slice of cake resting before her.
Seeing Flandre's utterly distracted state, Remilia momentarily lost the desire to lecture her further.
Forget it... she is just my silly little sister after all. As long as she remains happy and safe, I can handle the heavy lifting of adult responsibilities.
A flicker of gentle tenderness flashed deep within Remilia's crimson eyes as she looked down at Flandre.
Suppressing her emotional warmth, Remilia picked up her silver fork to resume eating her own dessert—only to suddenly freeze.
For some inexplicable reason, a significant portion of the cake resting on her own plate had mysteriously vanished!
Looking down carefully, she caught a certain "Tomato Scrambled Eggs" color scheme in the act—Flandre was covertly using her own fork to steal small, precise bites of cake right out of Remilia's bowl! Because her movements were so sneaky and precise, and because Remilia's attention had been turned away moments before, the young thief had successfully pulled off several stealthy strikes in a row...