As tense as a string, the air was that tense. Although the tense tense wasn't incorrect in describing that situation. Gerald and Laura were surprised when they heard that the princess would be executed. Although Gerald would take it as a joke first, he simply didn't believe in that sentence that Rosa just said.
"Wait, you are his daughter, right? There must be some sort of misunderstanding," Gerald said.
"It's no use, Gerald, I can't argue with my father, let alone you," Rosa said to him.
"So why do you agree to come to your father's wedding? Are you trying to kill yourself again?" Gerald asked.
"Maybe..." Rosa answered.
"Oh god," Gerald held his head like someone that just got hit by a strong headache.
"Why don't the king send anyone to kill you then?" Laura asked.
"Do you think anyone will survive on trying to assassinate the leader of the Royal Guards?" Gerald said.
"Yes I do, you're the living example," Laura said.
"Well, that was something that is never expected by her. I think she can hold her last stand against any assassin with ease, except for that time when we were drunk in an alleyway on the capital city of Ailenborough. Or the execution was an overstatement made by you?" Gerald asked.
"The execution is an overstatement made by me. I'm scared ok. Losing royalty is far worse than losing my life," Rosa said.
"Well, we've been through that haven't we?" Laura said.
"Yeah, dead is just a slap in the wrist for me," Gerald said.
"What do we do now?" Laura panicked.
"Hmm, you know," Gerald noticed a cigar cabinet and smoked one of the cigars. "Why don't we relax for sex?"
"Say what??" Laura and Rosa noticed that and shouted back at Gerald who was smoking the cigar.
"What? I'm just saying that let us relax for secs," Gerald said innocently.
"Oh, I see. So that's why you smoke that cigar. Mmm, I see that" Laura said.
Gerald grabbed matches from his pocket and lit up his cigar. He puffed three clouds of smoke. The cigar was some of his secret hobbies except for hot chocolate. Suddenly, a loud cannon sound could be heard from outside and the ship shook a bit.
"What's this?" Gerald's moment of enjoyment was interrupted.
"Warning commander, you are attacked by another flying object. Could you give me permission to engage?"
"Clarisse, engage it with Autocannon. Lasers aren't allowed, I don't want to blind someone."
"Copy that commander, Engaging the automatic defense system!"
Not long after that, a brief sound of brrrrrrt could be heard from outside. It was from the 300mm Autocannon that was shooting at the attacking ship that was attacking them.
Gerald continued to puff his Cigar, Rosa was confused with his calmness, and Laura was on stand by while holding the FR-90 on her hands. She was standing behind the door hinge, in a perfect ambushing position for an unwanted guest.
The door opened slowly, it was a person, the captain of the ship. He might want to warn them about the attack, but Laura instincts as a soldier kicked in before her common sense.
She kicked down the captain with her feet and locked his hands with her feet and finished it up with the clanging sound of charging the PDW.
"Spit it out! Imposter!" Laura said as she aimed the PDW at the Captain's head.
"Laura, that is our captain," Rosa said to her.
She looked down on the captain who was shocked and surprised when a girl got him good in the ground, "Good afternoon Mrs. Rosenhain, could you let me stand up."
"Ups," Laura stood up from him, "Please forgive me," she asked.
"Apologize accepted my lady. I'm sorry for the intrusion, but there was an attempted attack from the sky pirates. Luckily, God was on our side and the ship was disintegrated on mid-air," the captain explained.
"I see, well, captain. Could you leave this room please," Rosa said.
"As you wish your Royal Highness," he said as he closed the door.
Laura was sitting on the corner in embarrassment while Gerald still holding his cigar. It made Rosa wonder about which one of his friends was still sane enough. Laura was sitting in the corner while hugging her PDW.
"C'mon, we are going to a party. Why have to be that tense?" Gerald asked.
"Yeah, but that party sounds like a deathtrap to me. I can't imagine what will happen if the princess dies," Laura said.
"You don't need to imagine it. It has already happened," Rosa said to Laura.
"But..." Laura said.
"I will face my death with dignity," Rosa said.
"Exactly what I expected from a suicidal person. What is wrong with you? Is there anything I haven't known?" Gerald said as he puffed his cigar.
"Nothing! Both of you, get out!" Rosa shouted and Gerald approached her with a syringe on his hand.
"As you wish," Gerald injected the solution to Rosa's body and put her to sleep. It was a potent futuristic sleeping drug that will stop metabolism completely, that drugs would stop every single biological activity inside someone's body in a certain amount of time. The heart would stop, the lungs would stop, the brain would stop, any biological process would stop, the body won't produce anything nor need anything. It would be the deepest sleep that someone will get.
Both of them leave the room for the upper deck where fresh air was available. And Gerald's hypothesis was right that they were in the thermosphere. They were sailing on top of the atmosphere and there was no oxygen on that altitude. The ship was surrounded by some sort of energy bubble, maybe that was the pressured bubble.
"This is how we pressurize the air. We use a mana generator and a mana bubble to create an enclosed environment for the ship. A nifty tech huh? It happens naturally in a floating island," Laura commented.
"Wow, I don't remember that I asked. Then, this shield must be a replica of the ozone layer. I also assume that this ship doesn't move using wind due to the lack of wind in this altitude. I guest this ship using a thruster of some kind. I have no more arguments, to be honest, this is amazing tech considering the amount of understanding of technology in this world. Still, where is the king's floating island?"
"Glad you asked. I don't know," Laura said.
"As expected," he puffed his cigar again.
"Aren't you worried about your lungs?" Laura asked.
"No, I'm going to live longer than you," Gerald answered.
The captain came behind them and greeted them. He looked as if he wants to give them the bad news and that was justified by the next word that he was going to say, "Poor princess, or should I say not a princess anymore longer?"
"I know, poor her, " Gerald said.
"What makes you join the Royal Guards when it is going to be disbanded. You're not a fool aren't you or you just want to help the princess?" He asked.
"Laura here was a survivor and I simply a new member there, " Gerald said.
"Ooo I see that. Who slaughter the royal guards? Was it the demon?" He asked.
"Yes, it was the demon, " Laura answered.
The captain wasn't interested to have any conversation with them and he walked back to his cabin. Maybe Laura's first introduction to him wasn't that nice.
During the trip, they saw multiple floating islands, and Laura explained the details about any floating island that they saw during the ride.
"Floating Island usually owned by anyone that has a royalty rank above Margrave. It has its own cores which had its own anti-gravitational power, in short, it is the miniature of the earth without its molten core, " Laura explained.
"Could you sink floating island?" Gerald asked.
"I never heard about a sinking floating island, but maybe you can do it, " Laura said.
"What makes you said that?" Gerald asked.
"I prefer to see you as my father figure, but what you can do has more resemblance to what God can do. I'm an archmage and I know several God-age spells, but I haven't seen anything that causes that much destruction," Laura said.
Suddenly, a loud explosion could be heard.