Chad collapsed into his desk chair with an exasperated sigh, throwing down the log book that he had just scribbled into with an exaggerated motion. He had a difficult time believing that he had agreed to provide free passage to two passengers of unknown origin, let alone being goaded into helping a vampire, trespassing into foreign land and conspiring to launch an attack on an Astopolian fortress to rescue a condemned heretic. If there was a bucket list of things that he would avoid doing, it was the aforementioned list of things that he’d been persuaded into. 

Sinking into his seat, he popped the cork off a bottle of scotch and poured a portion into the empty glass on his cabin desk. Although it was Lyra that first attempted to persuade him to the ridiculous, it was Rilolia that had convinced him. While he still had reservations about her, his fears were allayed after having a chance to personally speak with the vampire. In comparison to Yazulayne and Lyra, she was the voice of reason among the three girls that had freeloaded on his boat, and was the only person with the legitimate reason to throw pot shots at Astopol. Chad scoffed at Lyra’s reasoning for assisting Rilolia. It was a bloody joke and he felt that Lyra should get a new hobby if her current one led her to lay siege to fortresses. Why not something like calming like sewing or intellectual like chess? But no matter the reason, Chad had already agreed to help the stray vampire(against his better judgment) and he wasn’t the person to rescind an offer of aid. Unfortunately for Chad, it had come to him to acquire transportation, and what was laid out on the desk before him was what he’d managed to put together in the week since Rilolia had slammed into the side of the deck. He’d gone through more than two thirds of the parchment he had on hand writing letters to relevant people and the operations of an airship (with some help from a certain airship captain), but most of the effort and paper had been expended on figuring out how to get such a damned stupid plan to work. Nothing was more conspicuous than chartering a giant, floating flying contraption, especially on the islands, where such a vessel was not particularly as common as on the mainland. He would have to share his latest idea with Lyra and Rilolia; it seemed decent enough that Lyra wouldn’t outright dismiss it as being a horrible piece of crap like the last time he proposed a solution. Pitching a crumpled piece of paper into a wastebasket on the far side of the room, Chad finished off the rest of the scotch in his glass and stood up. He would have to put aside those worries for the time being and prepare to make anchor at Frelia; the lighter blue water and the appearance of seagulls made it apparent that they would be making landfall in short time.

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 The weather at Frelia was quite sunny and warm, befitting the reputation the island had for being a popular tourist location. The [i]Laurentine Castle[/i] had dropped anchor without a hitch and the ship’s crew was already making good speed at unloading the ship’s cargo and passengers despite the distance between them and Frelia proper-- Chad had the ship anchored some ways from the port itself as it didn’t seem to have the space to accommodate the vessel. Looking back at the ship from his launch boat, Chad cracked his knuckles as he prepared for the large slew of business to come.