Ginn approached the distant castle, a rge stone structure embellished with a network of copper pipes and valves spewing steam that towered over him. Despite the castle's formidable presence, characterized by thick walls, a pneumatic drawbridge, and armed guards, this young man showed no hesitation in his stride.

  Although determined, his face showed the smallest hint of sadness.

  Before he was abducted by those pirates, things were looking a lot better for the father-son pair. Ginn was winning all his gdiator matches, and Edward was spending less time at the bar. Seeing his father fall back into his old habits at the slightest setback was disappointing, to say the least.

  But this didn’t change what he was going to do, what he needed to do.

  The Savate family suffered a devastating loss many years ago at the hands of the Bloodings family, who now govern this isnd. As the current patriarch, he was going to set that right.

  ‘It’s not stealing if I’m just taking back what belonged to the family, right? *SIGH* Even though I hate doing Mary a favor, I can’t think of another way to quickly gather travel funds… let’s overthrow an isnd.’

  One piece of wisdom Ginn’s father had imparted on him kept echoing through his head:

  ‘The man who thinks will live a long and uneventful life right where he stands. But the man who acts, even if he had taken but one step, will have experienced things the first man could ponder an entire lifetime over.’

  And Ginn knew this was his time to act; after all, he had a kingdom to found. Not the Sky Kingdom Siegfried hoped for, nor the Duchy Edward wished to recim, but the empire Ginn dreamed of.

  …

  After finally reaching the castle gates, Ginn was surprised to see Mary banging on them.

  “Come on Mom! Just give me back the money! I already returned the Airship, stop being so petty, you old hag!”

  A loud voice answered from behind the wall: “You good-for-nothing! I only sold you the airship because I thought I could finally get rid of you! You resolved yourself to buy the damn thing, now you better leave this isnd with it!”

  “I’m not interrupting am I?” Ginn approached Mary.

  “Ginn? I’m gd you’re here! This is all your fault! You just had to arrive a day after I bought an entire fucking airship from my mom! All to come and buy- I mean, save you from Pirate Isnd!”

  Ginn was taken aback. This girl was hoping the pirates would sell him at Pirate Isnd, and even bought an airship in the hopes of going there and purchasing him as a sve? “I can’t believe you worked hard, saved money, and even talked to your mom, all just to torment me some more… no wait, I can… I’m mostly just surprised about that st part, you hate your family…”

  Mary winked cutely, “I can’t just let my favorite patient run away from me now, can I? Though I already regret speaking to my family, too bad they were the only ones selling an I-zep on this godforsaken isnd…”

  ~ CHAPTER 5: AIRSHIPS AND THEIR PLACEMENT IN THE KINGDOM ~

  The bulk of the Sky Kingdom’s fleet is made up of I-zeps, the reason being that I-zeps have nding gear. Although they are not as efficient as regur zeppelins and thus require more CHUB to operate, the Sky Kingdom wouldn’t be a sovereign nation if we couldn’t nd whenever and wherever we wanted.

  The BLIMP company designates all I-zeps, as the name would suggest, as illegal. They can nd on the ground or sea and don’t have to dock at one of their Sky Trees.

  They even had the nerve to designate the Sky Kingdom as a band of Pirates when we first set out on our journey. They hunted us down every chance they got.

  But even this petty, pedantic rule, clearly established to extract as much profit from air travel as possible, was waived once the Sky Kingdom grew powerful enough. When I, the great Sir Siegfried, personally killed one of their top-level executives, they acknowledged the Sky Kingdom’s sovereignty.

  ~~~

  Ginn winked back with: “Well, today is your lucky day. The money you gave your mom will shortly become mine, and I don’t mind tossing you a few CHUB.”

  “What?-“

  *BOOM*

  Before Mary could protest, Ginn grew a short stubby bone from his heel and kicked his foot through the wooden gate. Much to the shock of Genovia, the mother of Mary and ruler of the STAAL Isnds.

  Her face bunched up in anger as she yelled from her castle window: “Did you think borrowing power from a man would get you your CHUB back Mary? You na?ve fool! Why don’t I just come down there myself an-“

  A woman standing in the courtyard, simirly beautiful to Mary but in her te twenties, interrupted her: “I’ll handle this, mother. This brute just interrupted my training.”

  She turned to the invader: “What are you doing here?”

  Ginn, now surrounded by a dozen guards pointing pneumatic sabres at his throat, excimed: “I came here as the Savate family patriarch to request an honorable duel with the family head of the Bloodings house. May the winner recim control of the STAAL isnds.”

  His reply caused Genovia to double over ughing: “Bwhahaha, an honorable duel? The Savate family? Do you mean that drunkard I kicked out of this castle 12 years ago? God, Mary, seriously, what are you trying to do here?”

  But seeing the shock on Mary’s face and the determination on Ginn’s she sighed: “I don’t know what game you’re trying to py here Mary, but it won’t end well for you, it never does… and you young man, smashing through a wooden door doesn’t give you the right to challenge me, neither does being the child of an alcoholic. Beat my eldest daughter, Genevieve, and then we’ll talk.”

  With that, Genovia walked away from the castle window, and Genevieve stepped forward.