Just A Reincarnation Story (Summoning Japan Edition)

Chapter 93: All the Stars Are Closer

Tempestamens 22, 1616 Central Calendar

Southwestern Silberian Sea

Meteos had spent nearly a month in the Gynamo Kingdom balancing business and leisure with his father. With their trip considered to be largely a success within the narrow time limit and the next item on their agenda nearing, it was time to head back to the Holy Empire. The flying boat gradually lifted off and rose higher into the sky. As he looked back, the island grew smaller, the modest trading hub of Zelmoda and the surrounding green low hills slowly blending into the sea until they disappeared entirely beneath the horizon. From here on out, it would be half a day before any sign of land appeared again—the monotony of a long journey.

Despite his attempts to temper it, the inconvenient thing about traveling on a plane, or covering long distances on a vehicle in general without adequate infrastructure, is that it easily made the reincarnator and his inherited memories restless. The world situation and the feeling that he has to do something made him so. Alas, with the so-called Cauldron Equipment (or Weapons) Group worked on by the White Lotus just barely taking shape, the technology of the time felt woefully inadequate to meet his requirements. Without a significant source of mana nearby—certainly not the fuel from the flying boat—Meteos couldn't indulge in a satisfactory Overhaul session to create random things. Sleeping when he's already well-rested would be a waste of time either.

On the flip side, however, Meteos has all the time to spend with his father, Roderick Roguerider.

"Bored, son?"

Roderick, seated in the lounge on the deck below the bridge, called out as he noticed his son wandering aimlessly. An open book lay in front of him on the table.

"More restless than bored," Meteos corrected, approaching the table. "Mind if I join you?"

Roderick beamed and gestured to the empty seat across from him. "Not at all. Come sit down."

"Thanks, Dad."

With a sigh, Meteos settled into the chair, briefly glancing at the distant horizon and the featureless sky outside, before turning his attention back inside.

"...Now more than ever, I'm realizing just how much I appreciate being free to do things without something constantly constraining me. This trip has been nice, but now that I have nothing immediate to focus on, time feels like it's dragging."

It would be great to have a faster means of traveling. After all, this planet is huge. Air travel technology would evolve to accommodate the enormous distances between locations. For instance, anti-gravity magic technology that might've led to the rise of modern intercontinental airships or maybe airliners flying at suborbital altitudes had already been pioneered by the Holy Empire earlier than his past timeline. Even if it's not Meteos, someone in the future would've imagined ways to traverse the vast expanse of Ars Goetia in a single flight, or something like that. He wanted to believe it, that someone would walk the path he'd blazed.

"Yes, I've noticed that about you, Meteos," Roderick chuckled. "Restless when idle, but once locked into something that catches your interest, it's hard to pull you away. You've been that way since you were little."

"If you see me like that, then I guess it can't be helped... but you've always been there for all of us, Dad. I don't know how to thank you for everything."

"Oh, Son. It's only natural, isn't it?"

Meteos sheepishly returned his father's sentiment, recalling that even as a child, he could easily spend hours lost in sketching those "amazing contraptions" inspired by memories of the future. The cascade of recollections reminded him just how unchanging—and yet endlessly supportive—Roderick had been. Across all timelines.