Chapter 3 A Fantasy Sky Cruise, Becomes a Terrifying Isekai Drop
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”This is… a whole new level of Isekai fantasy,” I muttered to myself.
Stepping out of the building, I was guided to a staging area where a ridiculously giant bird waited. Seriously—this thing was huge, easily the size of two cars parked bumper-to-bumper. Right next to the bird sat an iron box. Its walls were made of thick bars like a prison cell, and on the top was a T-shaped handle attached to the roof.
”Gonna use this to haul you out, eh?” a young man’s voice piped up brightly. He was a soldier—armor, sword, and all. Definitely part of this country’s military.
”With… this?” I asked, anxiety creeping into my voice.
”You get inside that iron room. Then I hop on my buddy here, and I carry you—iron room and all—straight to your destination,” the soldier explained casually. Apparently, he could mount the giant bird like a horse. That alone felt incredible—this world had a surprisingly advanced system of air transport.
”Hurry up and get in, will ya? The Princess said this was urgent,” he urged, sounding impatient.
”Oh… u-um, alright,” I stammered, feeling rushed. I scrambled inside the iron room. The soldier locked the door behind me, sealing me in what felt like solitary confinement. Then he climbed onto the bird without hesitation.
”Alright, let’s fly!” he hollered.
The bird flapped its massive wings, rose directly above the iron room, and a moment later, the entire cage began to ascend.
”W-w-wha—!?” I squeaked as the ground dropped away.
The T-shaped handle on the roof was what the bird used to carry the cage. The gigantic creature soared rapidly into the sky and began flapping toward some unknown destination. This is… amazing. It wasn’t airplane-level altitude, but the view of the world below—of a massive city and even a castle—was breathtaking. This had to be the nation’s capital.
I wanted to ask the soldier for the country’s name, but the wind was too loud, and I really didn’t want to distract him. I wanted to arrive in one piece, so I stayed quiet. The Princess had promised to send me somewhere safe, after all. I could ask questions once we landed.
(But still… this is genuinely scary.) The beautiful view quickly lost its charm. The fear of heights kicked in, the air was thin, the wind cut through me like a blade, and I was freezing. They could have at least given me a coat. I clung to the bars tightly.
(We’ve been flying a long time, haven’t we?) I couldn’t say exactly how long, but it felt like more than thirty minutes. Then the bird, which had been flying straight the whole time, suddenly began circling.
”What’s going on up there?” I shouted, my voice nearly carried off by the wind.
”Oh, hey! Figured this was good enough,” the soldier called back casually.
Huh? But… it’s only forest down there…?
”Good enough for what?” I began—then froze at his cheery reply.
”To drop you off! The Princess ordered me to toss you into this Demon Forest.”
”Wha— WHA!?” I shrieked. Was I hearing him correctly!? He sounded way too cheerful for something this ominous!
”This area’s packed with seriously nasty monsters, and no country wants to mess with developing it. I don’t wanna keep flying either; the miasma’s freaking me out. Sorry, but this is where you get dropped!”
”Wait, hold on—!” I cried in desperation.
”Don’t take it personal. I can’t go against the Princess’s orders, see? I got a family to feed. So, farewell, and good luck!”
”HIEEE—!”
Freefall swallowed me whole.
”WAAAAAAAAAAAHH!”
I was really falling—prison cell and all! The iron room plummeted toward the forest like a meteor. If it hit the ground like this, I’d definitely die. And even if I survived the impact by some miracle, the locked cage meant I’d starve to death or be eaten alive through the bars.
”Twice in one day…! I almost died twice!” I wailed. This was nothing like falling into that river earlier—this time, I was definitely dead.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the trees rushed closer and closer—
But the expected impact never came.
”……?”
I slowly opened my eyes. The iron room was descending gently now, almost floating. “W-what is this?” The cage carefully avoided trees and drifted down until it touched the ground with no impact at all.
”Phew! Finally, I can show myself!”
”—!!” a voice shouted, and suddenly, a tiny girl appeared right in front of me. Not small—tiny. Palm-sized. A fairy? Her mischievous eyes, light blue ponytail, and high-cut leotard with a jacket made her look both cute and dangerously immodest.
”Um… who are you?” I asked.
”I’m Ami! Just call me Ami-chan, okay?” she chirped.
”Ami-chan…?” She seemed friendly. Cute, too… and the outfit was borderline indecent, which was a problem because I kept accidentally glancing at her legs. Since she introduced herself, it was only polite for me to—
”Ah—I’m—”
”You’re Shimizu Shouichi, right?”
…Huh? Why did she know my name?
”Shimizu Shouichi. Kicked out of your house after failing your university exams, you’ve been barely scraping by on part-time wages. Your hobbies include binging free webnovels, manga, and videos. You hit rock bottom recently when you found out that cute high school girl at your job was sleeping with the manager. As for your… preferences, your two-dimensional tastes are flat-chested twin-tailed girls, and for three-dimensional, it’s big-breasted girls with glasses and long black hair.”
”WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?”
Why did she know the darkest corners of my life!? And my… preferences!? No—focus! That wasn’t the main issue!
”H-how do you know about Japan!?” I demanded, mortified.
”Hee hee hee! That’s easy, Shouichi! I’m the one who tossed you out of Japan and into this world!” Ami-chan declared proudly.
”Ehhhh!? W-what are you talking about!?” I’d thought I’d been dragged in by the four Hero summons!
”Shouichi—I’ll call you Shou since it’s shorter! First, be proud! You were chosen as a potential contractor by little ol’ Ami-chan!”
”Contractor… potential…?”
Ami-chan spun in mid-air, rising slightly. “Shou, if you and I team up, we can both benefit. It’s what you’d call a business partnership!”
”S-specifically, what kind of benefits?”
”First, you’ll get the power to survive this place. I’ll tell you exactly what kind after the contract is signed,” she teased. Super shady. Zero details, just promises. “And you can go back to Japan.”
”What!? I can go home!?” I gasped.
”Of course! I just used the Hero Summoning circle because it was convenient at the time, but the path to this world is already open. I don’t need some low-level ritual. My own power lets me travel between Earth and here.”
Unbelievable. Power to survive—and a ticket home. I temporarily ignored the fact that returning home didn’t actually solve any of my problems. And that I’d have to work that midnight shift again.
”Wait… so you’re not a fairy from this world, Ami-chan?”
”That’s right. I was born in a world different from both this place and Earth. And that’s where the business part comes in!”
Here it was. The price. What could I possibly offer?
”The truth is, I’ve got a couple of troublesome guys keeping an eye on me,” she sighed.
”Ah…” I responded flatly.
”So, I want you to use the power I give you to protect me from them. Honestly, I’d prefer if you just crushed them entirely.”
So that was the deal. A fair exchange—power to survive for protection.
”Wait… was it you who threw me into this world in the first place?” Because if so, wasn’t this whole nightmare her fault?
”We can get to that. Remember falling into that river in Japan?”
”I do…” I muttered.
”From that height, you probably would’ve died. But since I sensed teleportation magic nearby, I tinkered with it and saved you by sending you here!”
Apparently, she’d nullified all the impact damage using the summoned magic circle. I… guess I should thank her? She said she’d been invisible beside me the entire time. Now that we were in the forest with no witnesses, she could finally show herself.
”But… why me as a contractor? I’m nothing special.”
”That’s not even a boast, Shou,” she deadpanned.
It hurt because it was true. But I still wanted to know why.
”The reason you were chosen as a contractor is—”
But a violent rustling cut her off. I turned to see a lion-headed monster glaring straight at me.
”H-H-H-HIEEEEEE!” I screamed. It was massive—about the size of the giant bird. The monster snarled and lunged at the cage.
”Uh-oh. Looks like we’ve been spotted,” Ami-chan said calmly.
”W-w-w-w-waaaah…!” I sputtered as the beast slammed a claw into the cage. The bars held, but the entire iron room was sent flying and crashed violently, rolling across the ground.
”W-what, what, what!” I panicked. The bars were bending. A few more hits and it would burst open—and I’d be monster food.
”No time! Shou, the contract! Now!” Ami-chan shouted.
”O-okay! Contract! I agree to the contract!”
”Good!”
The lion-head monster paused for a moment but would definitely strike again. Ami-chan brought her hands together, tapping invisible screens.
”Ooh! You’re impressive, Shou! You’ve got a great selection right from the start! I don’t know that monster’s threat level, so… Shou! We’re buying a Maid!”
”I don’t even know what that means! B-but whatever! Buy! Buy the Maid!” I screamed, panicking. Why a Maid!? From where!? Was a Maid something you could buy?
But instantly—a Maid appeared outside the iron room. A classical uniform, expression bizarrely blank.
”Next, tell her this: ‘I, the Quester, grant you a Class!’”
”I-I, the Quester, grant you a Class!” I shouted. It sounded painfully chuunibyou². But as soon as I said it, text appeared around the Maid.
”Ehh…”
”Oh, wow…” Ami-chan murmured.
[Class: Lancer]
[Attribute: Water]
[Weapon: None]
[Attack Power: Fairly High]
[Defense: Not Bad]
[Mobility: Pretty Good]
[Magic Power: So-so]
”What are those!?” I yelled.
The events that followed were instantaneous. The Maid moved with superhuman speed and took down the lion-head monster with her bare hands. It was gruesome. She tore through flesh and crushed bone with her bare fists, becoming absolutely covered in blood—it was genuinely horrifying to watch. The terrifying Maid (The bare-handed Lancer) then dispersed into particles of light and vanished from the spot.
—
Recap
Shouichi’s fantastical Isekai journey took a cruel, terrifying turn when his majestic sky cruise on a giant bird became a literal death-drop into the perilous Demon Forest. Trapped in an iron cage, the bewildered young man faced certain doom, only to be saved at the last second by the arrival of Ami-chan, a tiny, high-powered, and unapologetically sassy fairy.
She exposed his embarrassing Earthly past, including his sexual preferences and job woes, before revealing she was the one who pulled him into this world. Just as a monstrous, lion-headed beast attacked, Shouichi was forced to accept her mysterious contract and—in a bizarre act of instantaneous system power—’purchase’ a brutally effective Maid Lancer to ensure his immediate survival in the deadly woods.
—
Character Insight
Shimizu Shouichi is a man paralyzed by the sheer chaos of his new life. His greatest fear isn’t just physical harm—it’s the profound, existential embarrassment that comes with having his most intimate, private thoughts and otaku-adjacent hobbies exposed to a stranger. This exposure, combined with the extreme violence of the fantasy world, is a psychological shock that makes his surrender to Ami’s contract less a matter of courage and more a desperate, panicked reflex to survive the constant threat of death. He’s learning that in this Isekai, his low self-esteem and poor luck are constants, even when presented with a dangerous, powerful benefactor.
—
Behind the Scene
The Princess’s order to drop Shouichi into the Demon Forest was a deliberate act of betrayal, intended to remove the ‘nuisance’ of a non-hero Isekai transfer. Ami, the fairy, had been following Shouichi invisibly since he was rescued from the river, using the subsequent, chaotic moments of his transfer as a cover to reveal herself only when he was in dire, immediate peril. Her goal was to force a quick contract out of sheer terror, ensuring his loyalty and immediate dependency on her mysterious Class system before any other entity could claim him.
—
T/L_Note
1. Quеster: This term is presented in the original text as the term the protagonist must use to activate the Class system, strongly suggesting an RPG-like system where the user is the ‘Quest-er’ or ‘Quest Master.’ We keep the term capitalized to reflect its narrative importance. ↩
2. Chuunibyou: A common Japanese term for an adolescent who suffers from eighth-grade syndrome—someone who indulges in delusions of grandeur and believes they possess secret powers. Here, it’s used to describe how over-the-top Shouichi felt yelling the command. ↩
Notes:
• Ami – A palm-sized fairy-like being from a world separate from both Earth and the isekai realm. She has light blue hair tied in a ponytail, mischievous blue eyes, and tiny wings that flutter behind her. Her outfit consists of a provocative high-cut leotard and a short jacket that looks like a miniskirt from the back, leaving her legs bare. Despite her playful appearance, she is actively searching for a contractor who can protect her from dangerous pursuers in exchange for the powers she offers.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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