Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 654: Uncertain Future

All the people and ships have arrived. For the first time, so many spacecraft have flooded into Terminus, this desolate corner of the star world, that the number of man-made objects on its sky exceeds the number of visible celestial bodies.

Rorschach looked around and saw large ships hovering in a sparse and even pattern, with small boats like flies and mosquitoes shuttling back and forth quickly, bringing the Istani people to the allied ships and selling the goods of Valois to the dwarves.

Many of these ships that were teleported here were built decades ago. Their shapes and appearances are a microcosm of time. The earliest ships still have exposed rivet marks, and their sealing and stability are very worrying. The premise for their existence is to burn massive amounts of transmutation dust and leave all problems to magic.

Since the shipyard of Kepler Space Station was opened, a batch of sailing ships have even been produced, with wooden hulls reinforced by force fields and windless self-sailing sails with huge magic circles drawn on them.
Until people's footprints became larger and larger, until the development of alchemy slowed down, and the mining areas of the Transmutation Dust Layer were divided up and fought over by various countries, everyone finally realized that it was not cost-effective to build a junker that could hardly go to sea and then use magic to make it ascend to the sky, especially as the magic guilds charged more and more expensive fees.

So they began to focus on efficacy, began to study basic materials and casting techniques, and tried to restrain the use of magic in design.
Up to now, the most outstanding products are several pioneer immigration ships. Of course, this does not mean that they have gotten rid of the dependence on magic power, but the unit consumption has been reduced to the lowest level.

The space waves of [Teleportation] reverberated in the silent star realm, and boats of all sizes began to move to make room for today's protagonist:
The "White Maple" of Valois, a huge ship painted in platinum, looks like a retro aristocratic pistol. It has a slender hull, and the power compartment slightly lower than the hull is at the end, ready to go.

The Alliance sent out the "Aurora", which means "dawn". Its round body was equipped with the latest and most advanced manufacturing and magic technology, like a technological achievement exhibition hall, and the logos of the Magic Guild and the Space Guild were added undisguisedly on the side of the starship.

"Silvanos Ark", the elves called their immigration ship, and they had to admit that they took advantage of a certain kind of correctness within the "Sea Alliance" and gained sympathy and compensation by emphasizing the various tragedies suffered by the gray elves in the history of Istani, such as this beautiful and luxurious starship. Its lines are sharp like feather arrows, and it appears gray-green under the starlight.

The ship sent by the dwarves is like an enlarged version of a mining ship, almost completely square. They don't consider the shape or the consumption of raw materials such as metal. The former makes people sneer, while the latter makes people envy. Its name is also very appropriate - "Hammer of the Ancestors", which is indeed a super-large hammer head floating in the starry sky.

The "New Marlin" arrived late. The folds of time and space radiated like lightning and then broke open, and this permanent immigrant ship leaped out from it. It looked the most regular, close to the ironclad ships that people still sailed on the sea of ​​the main plane, but if you look closely, the painting on its bow and side implies an eagle flying from the empire.

There are also several special ships.

In front of them were the spacecrafts of the Space Guild, which were equipped with the same space shield system as the Maxim, and the space bubble engine that could achieve the highest speed at present. They were the pioneers, and there was no space reserved for passengers inside, only the ship spirits.

Later on were the Magic Guild's logistics and research vessels, which were somewhat similar to the dwarven ships, carrying refined transmutation dust, which was the fuel until they found a way to harness the energy of another world.

The branches and core of the Tree of Law have been separated by Rorschach, and all have been given to people going to the New World. They are hiding on these ships and have not yet revealed their identities. Sometimes Rorschach would think with evil humor, if the guild knew that he had sent these "artifacts" out, how hard they would work to track down the "jinchūriki".

Alec is one of them.

Of course, he and Jonas were on the New Marlin. All preparations had been completed, and another shift of engineers took their turns. Alec and his friend spent their last days in the Old World drinking as planned. Through the porthole, the light of the starry sea shone on half of his face, and suddenly a huge fatigue swept over him. He had received an incredible gift from his youth - a panel from Master Rorschach, as well as a huge fortune. He had done countless things to allow the imperial immigrants to obtain tickets to the New World, and when they ascended to heaven, they did not need to swear allegiance to an unfamiliar country like himself.
No, none of the above was important. He was not tired of recalling the difficulties of the past. What really made Alec feel embarrassed was that he realized that everything that happened in the past was just the beginning.

Compared to Alec's tiredness, his friend Jonas is still in the same state as before, silent in front of strangers, relatively obedient in front of his parents, and "showing his true nature" in front of his friends - frivolous, adventurous, and having some weird ideas from time to time. It's nothing for teenagers, but they are all in their thirties!
So Alec had one last thing to do before leaving. When he had almost finished drinking, he sighed, successfully attracting Jonas' attention, and then said, "Jonas, it's time for you to get off the boat."

"what?"

"You joined the New Marlin to escape your parents from the beginning, right?"

Jonas' eyes widened in disbelief. "Damn it! We've worked together for so long, and now you want to kick me out? Is this an ultimatum, Captain Shadow?"

Alec also gritted his teeth and said, "Yes, an ultimatum! This ship belongs to the remnants of the empire, not you."

Jonas's eyes, which were originally red from the alcohol, also turned red:
"Then who am I? Who is my father? Are you going to ascend the throne as soon as you get to the other side, and then declare my father and my family to be traitors to the Empire?" Jonas was angry: "You should think about how much help the Alliance gave before the destruction of the Earldom! Why did they arrange for you and me to go to school? Why did they retain such a huge inheritance? Just because of your so-called royal bloodline?
"Father has said countless times before that the alliance is the empire and the empire is the alliance. Just wait, I will get off the ship now. I will wait until the second batch of ships enter the New World to punish you, the ungrateful traitor!"

Jonas slammed the door and left.

After Alec confirmed that the footsteps in the corridor were gradually fading away, he immediately activated the [Teleportation]: "It's me. Yes, Jonas is about to get off the ship. You're welcome, ma'am, this is what I should do. No, he is not ignorant, Jonas is fine, you can send a ship to intercept him, but he is a little emotional now."

The communication ended, and a series of small noises came from the machine, which could be clearly heard in his cabin. Alexei sat on the bed. Now he was alone. He poured himself a full cup and took out the drive watch. Now he no longer needed this watch to assist in casting spells - with the panel, Alexei was already as powerful as a great wizard, but he still had no certification.

The last force in the empire is just Count Dalberg, who is a great wizard.

Now he squinted his eyes and looked ahead. The slightly curved outline of the Terminus star occupied most of the window. After an unknown amount of time, the wine in his hand was almost gone, and finally a point of light appeared on the horizon.

The light spot grew larger and larger, and then expanded along the normal direction of the horizon. When the light penetrated the entire starry sky visible from the porthole, it tore apart to both sides, forming a gap like a vertical eye. Alexei's expression froze at this moment, and he knew that this must be the door to break away from the mother body and head towards the new world.

(End of this chapter)