Chapter 979: Another Kind of Genius
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Everyone present witnessed it.
The glider fell down the cliff and out of their sight shortly after it left the runway. It happened so fast that no one had time to respond.
Roland also feared for their safety.
He had foreseen the possibility of all sorts of accidents during the trial. Although he had prepared more than one prototype in order to increase the flyer's experience with as many trials as possible, he did not expect the first crash to come so early.
In theory, the glider was slow, low-loaded, and easy to control. A little wind was able to maintain its airtime, making it very friendly to a new hand. In fact, there were only a few mistakes that could make the flyer lose control of the aircraft. Roland had emphasized these points whilst explaining the principles. This time, Wendy obviously lifted the aircraft's nose too high. As a result, the aircraft lost its original speed and started to drop.
Although the glider had lost its ascending speed, the situation could still be salvaged with appropriate actions.
As Wendy was capable of creating winds.
All she had to do was blow wind down towards the tail whilst reducing the wind that lifted the glider. This would force the glider's nose down and therefore its body would regain speed.
Unfortunately, the wind Wendy applied to the main wings was too strong and abrupt. As a result, the glider flipped over and thus they had no choice but to abandon the aircraft.
Although the glider could be saved, Roland cared more about the safety of the flyers as there were no safety devices installed, such as seatbelts. In fact, the glider only contained an aluminum chair with two arms and a backrest to steady the flyers. It was easy to imagine what would happen when the glider was overturned.
Fortunately, Tilly did not leave everyone worrying for too long.
A few seconds later, she was holding Wendy's arm and appeared on the edge of the cliff.
"Are you alright?" Roland asked anxiously.
"Don't worry. We're fine." Tilly smiled and panted slightly. "In order to avoid being hit, I flew down a little to dodge it before ascending."
Unlike Lightning who would significantly lose speed when she carried load, a witch who controlled the Stone of Flight would not lose speed even if she carried a person. Instead, the stone would consume much more magic power and become harder to control. Although Princess Tilly had made light of the situation, Roland knew that the rescue would not have been completed so easily without her remarkable control over the stone.
"My apologies... Your Majesty." Wendy said, looking a bit frustrated. "You've spent so much time making that aircraft, but I..."
Roland comforted her immediately, "It's not your fault. No one is born to know how to fly an aircraft. That's part of the knowledge unknown to all of us. The materials of the glider were more valuable than the process of making it. As long as we can recover the wreckage, we won't suffer a great loss."
"We won't?" Wendy asked.
"I can promise you that His Majesty is telling the truth," Nightingale said as she suddenly appeared and faced her friend.
Wendy felt relieved. "I see... I'll have another try!"
Roland was amused. "Is that another usage of the ability to detect lies?" He always felt that Wendy had worked too hard after she was appointed the head of the Witch Union.
"Don't you want to rest?" asked Roland.
"No!" Wendy exclaimed.
"Well then, just keep in mind that safety comes first," said Roland.
"Don't worry brother. I got this," Tilly said as she smiled.
...
In the end, it turned out that flying was not so easy to master.
The second trial did not last longer than three minutes.
Surprisingly, Wendy made great progress this time. She managed to successfully raise the glider to an altitude of nearly 50 meters high.
Unfortunately, as the glider was turning, the wings rolled too much.
Roland could see that Wendy had been trying hard to adjust the wind direction in order to re-balance the glider, however, this only resulted in a short unstable wobble before it dropped once again.
Tilly decisively pulled Wendy off the seat in advance, before the glider tumbled and crashed into the ground. Both wings were twisted completely out of shape, leaving the glider in an unflyable state until it could be repaired.
Compared to the first flyer in human history, who only managed to fly three meters above the ground, the participants of this trial equally deserved to be remembered in history for their remarkable accomplishments.
Sadly, Roland needed more than just putting an aircraft in the sky. To deal with the approaching Battle of Divine Will, he had to equip the army with aircrafts as soon as possible.
With such a high crashing frequency, Roland soon knew how depressing it felt to wreck three aircrafts in a single morning.
"What went wrong this time?" Roland asked.
"We bumped into a crosswind," Tilly said as she shrugged. "It caused us to lose speed."
Wendy nodded, feeling guilty. "I panicked and couldn't control the glider or my powers. If only I focused more on the gliders operation, I might have been able to prevent it from dropping," said Wendy depressingly.
These words reminded Roland of a problem that he had previously ignored. Witches had to concentrate when exerting their powers, hence their abilities were prone to fluctuations when in a state of panic. Thus, if a witch could not accurately control her ability mid-flight, she could potentially worsen the situation instead of helping it.
It seemed that this problem could only be solved with more practice.
"How about... letting me have a try," Tilly suddenly said.
"You?" Roland said whilst a little surprised.
"I took your class too. If I controlled the glider, there would be no need for me to worry about getting distracted by the wind. This way, Wendy would have less burden to bear. And..." Tilly raised the corners of her mouth, her eyes shined itching to have a try. "...I believe I can operate this big thing."
Seeing as Wendy was not against it, Roland agreed after a moment of thought.
Roland had chosen Wendy for the flight test because of her ability. She could sense the changes in the wind and generate air currents to support the glider when required. Though, it turned out that supporting the glider with wind was not as easy as he thought.
In that case, it should be fine to change the plan slightly.
Since Tilly was his nominal sister and the leader of Sleeping Spell, it was also part of his responsibility to make her happy.
There was only one prototype left anyway, might as well let them try. It did not matter if they destroyed it as next time he would prepare more alternatives.
...
When the third glider took off, Roland came to realize that he had underestimated Tilly.
The glider initially flew leveled to the sea before steadily rising. When the glider turned down away from the sun, the flight rhythm suddenly started to change.
It flew soaring through the wind, like an agile petrel, alternating between the sky and sea. Although it may be inappropriate to compare a clumsy glider to an elegant petrel, the way the glider turned, swooped, and ascended was very graceful under Tilly's control. Roland felt a beautiful sense of harmony from its movements in the sky.
Meanwhile, he realized that Tilly was not overly relying on Wendy to produce wind. She only required it when the glider lost both its speed and height. At these times, she would adjust the position of the glider to allow the magic wind to lift it higher.
She was using the control surfaces on their own to control the glider.
Furthermore, she has had no more than 30 minutes of piloting experience.
It was surprising to see someone so gifted.
Roland then realized why Tilly was more versed in using Magic Stones than any other witch. Based on Agatha's opinion, Magic Stones were not easy to control because a witch would feel a sense of discrepancy. It was as if the stone became an extra limb when she activated it. Could this be Tilly's area of expertize after becoming an Extraordinary?
It was this astounding nervous system that enabled her to coordinate and accept new things more easily and quickly.
It explained why she could master the trick of steering an aircraft so quickly.
Whilst in thought, Roland could not help feeling a surge of pity.
It was a shame that he could not make a Gundam.
Otherwise, the demons would have had to face an unparalleled ACE.
An hour later, the glider was welcomed by the audience's wild cheers as it slowly pressed its tail and landed steadily on the grass.