TBATE - Not Bound By Fate

Part 34

Tessia Eralith

Yesterday Arthur asked me to go test the project Gideon was developing to counter the Alacryan ships. He was supposed to go today with grandpa Virion but because Regis attempted to recruit someone for Seris's rebelion, he will have to accompany Caera who is going to meet the potential recruit today.

I had to wake up quite early as the test was happening on Mirror Lake, next to Kalberk. Lucky for me it was a weekend, so I had no student council duties to attend to.

Arthur was already awake and had made us breakfast with Sylvie's help. She offered to accompany me today and I had no reason to refuse her company. Plus, she could keep me updated on how well or bad the recruitment was going.

Arthur had made a dish from his old world called 'Francesinha'. It was really different from anything I had here in Dicathen and I quite liked it. And it also served as proof Arthur's cooking skills had improved a lot over the years.

After we finished eating, we all got ready for the day ahead, with Arthur dressed in his old adventuring gear and Sylvie and I had put on a sundress with a bathing suit underneath it, as all we were told about today was to get ready for a swim.

We met with grandpa who was waiting for us with a carriage at the academy gates. He was surprised to see us as he was supposed to go with Arthur, but after explaining the reason behind the change of plans he just sighed and cursed Regis for being impulsive. All three of us boarded the carriage and spent the ride with mostly small talk and catching up.

Once we arrived in Kalberk, we went straight for the lake where we met Gideon and he led us to where we were supposed to test the project. The area he took us to was about two hours away from the city, I assumed it was for the sake of secrecy as not even the council was aware of what Gideon had been working on.

Getting out of the carriage the first thing I noticed was the small black boat just sitting on the sand near the water alongside what I assumed was another type of water vehicle I didn't recognize. Seeing my confusion Sylvie began explaining.

"This was actually Regis' idea. He thought it would be a good idea to replicate the boats used by the military in Arthur's old world for covert operations. And the thing next to it is called a jetski, it was used mostly for leisure by wealthy people and the coast guard." She whispered to me so Gideon wouldn't hear and I nodded to signal I somewhat understood what she said.

"Alright, listen well because I'm only going to explain this once. This boat works by injecting mana in this device here in the back." He pointed at a box-like structure as he spoke. "The more you put, the faster it goes so do be careful when using." Gideon moved to the front part of the boat and continued explaining. "As you can see there is a mount for a weapon in the front area but we won't be testing it today, so for a substitute one of you will just shoot spells at the targets." He looked over to me and Sylvie to see if we had any questions and understood what he said. We simply nodded so Gideon would keep going, but before he could grandpa asked something.

"What is the status of those weapons? Are you any closer to having a working prototype?"

"Yes actually. I need to run a few more tests, but I should have something to show by the end of the month. That is considering nothing goes wrong with the fire salts." Gideon answered.

"Alright, let me know if you need anything then." Grandpa said and Gideon simply nodded before moving onto the jetski to explain how it worked.

"This vehicle here works the same way as the boat, the only difference being that it only accommodates two people instead of six and you inject mana in the handles. Now then, any questions?" None of us said anything so Gideon moved on. "Alright then, we'll start with the boat since it's more stable. Get on you two."

Sylvie and I did as we were told and Gideon pushed the boat onto the lake. We decided to alternate between the two of us on who was navigating and who would shoot the targets and began with Sylvie shooting first.

As we moved through the lake I noticed how sometimes the device propelling us forward wouldn't accept all the mana I was putting into it and slowed down considerably. Just as I started getting used to the intervals of failure it was time for me and Sylvie to switch roles.

The moment she injected her mana in the propeller I almost fell out from the sudden burst of speed. Fortunately I did manage to hold onto the rope lining the boat. Looking over to Sylvie I saw she was even more surprised than I was.

"I guess the core strength of whoever is piloting matters." She commented sheepishly.

It didn't take long for her to get the hang of directing the boat and how much mana to infuse in the propeller. As we moved around I noticed how hard it was to aim with the irregular movement of the craft, which led to me missing a few of the targets, but nothing some practice couldn't fix.

We made it back to shore where Gideon had been furiously taking notes. He asked us a few questions about the performance of the propeller and its mana consumption. After telling him about our experience and voicing our opinions on what we thought could be improved, Sylvie and I got onto the jetski after pushing towards the shallow part of the lake.

The moment we got onto the vehicle I looked over to Sylvie and her expression told me we were thinking the same thing. This thing was going to flip. I didn't know anything about jet skis and hadn't even begun accelerating, but I just knew something was off.

It took a few moments and Gideon screaming at us to gather my courage and begin piloting. The result was the thing immediately flipping over throwing Sylvie and I into the water.

We swam back to land and looked over to the upside down jet ski that was smoking now for some reason.

"Well, that's not good." Gideon said what all of us were thinking. "I think I know what went wrong, thankfully I came prepared for such an outcome." He pulled out a few tools from his coat and asked that me or Sylvie bring back to him the jet ski.

It took about ten minutes for Gideon to fix whatever was wrong and we were in the water again. This time we didn't immediately flip over and were able to properly drive the thing.

After some back and forth and a few more test runs we were done for the day. We did miss lunch but decided instead of eating in Kalberk, it would be better to go eat at the new chain of that café Arthur took me back when we were still living in Zestier. That was after going back to the dorms to take a shower and change clothes of course.

Sylvie and I spent the rest of the day together walking around Xyrus and just talking about whatever came to mind, until Arthur spoke to her through their bond saying he was coming back from the meeting so the two of us went back to Xyrus Academy.

When Arthur arrived I noticed how his clothes weren't in the best of conditions before I spoke.

"Welcome back. How did it go?"

"The meeting went great, I think we can trust the guy. He genuinely hates Kiros and Oludari and after we told him about the things Agrona he agreed on the spot to help Seris." Arthur said, his voice sounding a bit tired.

"Then what happened to your clothes? And where is Regis?" Sylvie asked, not too worried.

"Regis had the brilliant idea to poke a few nests on the way out of the dungeon, so now he's on cleanup duty in the glades as punishment. Fighting mana beast for hours resulted in what you're currently seeing as far as my clothes are concerned." He explained a bi miffed about the situation.

"How about we go shop for some replacements tomorrow then? And maybe a leash for Regis so we can stop him doing something like this again?" I suggested.

"Sure, why not. I doubt the leash will be that useful, but at least it will be funny seeing him wearing one."