Flying Has Become as Easy as Breathing

Dark clouds hung down from the dome, dyeing the sky in a matte silver foil.

Fortunately, this was not a portent of Stormterror attacking once more, but merely an ordinary overcast day. The people of Mondstadt could not bear any more turbulence for the time being.

"Ha-," Gabrielina leaned her head back, stretching out a huge laziness, her massive wingspan unfurling in the damp air.

Her slender body was pulled taut, a succession of bone-cracking pops echoing from her joints.

"Didn't you sleep well last night?", Lumine looked at the girl's terrible complexion beside her, a worried look on her face, "Still thinking about that dream?"

"Mm... No~", Gabrielina conjured a slightly exhausted smile, yet the hand hanging by her leg slid outward, very naturally slipping into Lumine's palm.

The young lady's cheeks instantly bloomed with a flush of red, and she hurriedly glanced all around.

Perhaps due to the weather, there were not many people at the Anemo God Plaza today, and the green figure that usually spawned here to busk was still locked away in the tavern.

Thus, after a symbolic struggle twice, Lumine simply let the other party thread her fingers between her own.

"Why are you two always so clingy?", Paimon circled around the pair, asking with confusion.

"B-Because..."

"Because good sisters are just like this." Gabrielina gently scratched Lumine's palm with her fingertips, answering composedly, "Paimon, you can join us too..."

Until her hand reached inside, you both still thought you were just~ sisters.

*...*

Gabrielina had no intention of entertaining the system.

She was prepared to temporarily block this fellow. On one hand, it was because of last night's dream, and on the other hand, she discovered she truly couldn't win against the veteran driver in terms of driving skills.

Gabrielina: I kneel to the senior!

Yet, perhaps whether it was the system or Paimon, someone always had to issue quests. Just as Gabrielina was happily taking a walk with Lumine, the quest found its own way over.

"Gabrielina, Lumine, I've been looking for you guys for ages~"

Amber greeted the two while waving and running over from afar, the bunny-ear headband atop her head bounding cheerfully with her footsteps.

Seeing this situation, Lumine snatched her hand back like she had been electrocuted, her ear tips blushing as she greeted, "A-Amber, good morning!"

"...Good morning. (Gritting teeth)"

"I don't have much work this morning, Acting Grand Master Jean gave me the day off, heh heh..." Amber smiled shyly, then suddenly seemed to recall something as she looked at Lumine with eyes full of expectation.

"That's right, that's right. How did the Wind Glider I gave you last time work out?"

"They're great! It's just... I always unconsciously fly too high." Lumine replied, "Actually, it's mostly thanks to Gabrielina guiding me~"

"Uh... Right."

Right, is that right?

She seemed to have been using "Sky Shift" the whole time...

"Ah! Sometimes I really envy Gabrielina, she has her own wings from birth.", Amber lowered her head in disappointment, muttering to herself.

Faced with two scorching gazes, Gabrielina couldn't help retreating a step, the wings that had originally unfurled so boldly pulling back a little.

"Oh, come to think of it. You definitely don't have a Gliding License yet, do you?"

"A Gliding License? What kind of thing is that?", Paimon asked in confusion.

"It's pretty obvious just from the name, isn't it?" Amber put her hands on her hips and explained, "Only by getting a Gliding License can you legally fly in Mondstadt!"

Paimon and Lumine rapidly exchanged a glance, both wearing troubled expressions.

"Mm... Lumine and Gabrielina have been flying around in the city for so long, we've never heard of such a thing before..."

"That's why I'm saying, it's precisely because you two fly around the city all day long that everyone's attention has been drawn to you!" Amber placed one hand on her hip, her red rabbit ears trembling slightly with the motion.

Seeing that the cute-fooling method wasn't going to work, Paimon sheepishly stuck out her tongue, "So, Amber came specifically today to deliver the Gliding License?"

"How could that be? Knights have a lot of principles."

"You have to pass the Gliding License exam first, and then it's uniformly issued by the Knights of Favonius. And I-"

Amber gave two light coughs, straightened her posture, gently tugged at the collar of her uniform with her fingertips, and revealed a brilliant smile on her lifted face.

"Am precisely here to act as your examiner today, supervising Lumine's Gliding License exam!"

"After all, I gave the Wind Glider to you, so I have to take responsibility~ Acting Grand Master Jean would definitely say so too."

"Uh... Then what about me?", Gabrielina pointed at herself.

"Um... Gabrielina doesn't need to take this kind of exam, right?" Lumine propped her chin in her hand, lowering her head to inspect the angel's feet dangling in mid-air.

The ankles were as slender as if sculpted from moonlight, as though a little force would shatter them at her fingertips. The smooth heels revealed a pale cherry-like light pink, tracing an elegant curve past the arch, and even the slightly curled toes gave off an alluring luster.

With the girl's inadvertent movement, the golden chains wrapped around her ankles also swayed gently, brushing against the porcelain-white skin and leaving behind...

Uh, in short, her feet weren't touching the ground.

"Cough! L-Let, let you... join the gliding evaluation, wouldn't that be like making a normal person take a walking license test? Don't join in the fun." Lumine recited the long, difficult sentence at blinding speed, pretending to be calm as she waved her hand.

Yet Gabrielina didn't react at all; she was deep in thought.

Had Lumine secretly cursed her for not being a normal person just now? Or was she still holding a grudge because of that punch...

Blame the damn system!

"Lady Gabrielina is exempt from the exam, of course. Honestly, I wouldn't even know how to set the grading standards for her..." Amber sighed helplessly.

"Mm, even though it sounds like a hassle, since Amber is the proctor, then..."

"I'll just pass it on my own merits," Lumine clenched her fists and said firmly.

"Of course, Lumine will definitely pass!" Amber agreed. "It's just a tiny little test. Everyone in Mondstadt has witnessed your flying skills during the fight against Stormterror, so you'll definitely be fine."

"Mm, that may be true... but we still have to follow the rules and regulations and flight standards~"

The girl lowered her head, rummaged through the cross-body bag at her waist for a moment, and handed over a book almost as thick as a brick. "Here, this Flight Guide is for you. You don't have to memorize it, but you still need to familiarize yourself with it."

"For example, sharing a pair of Wind Glider is prohibited, taking off with overweight cargo is prohibited, taking off using a Slime is prohibited..."

Lumine nodded earnestly to show she had memorized it, while Gabrielina quietly rubbed her chin on the side.

As the saying goes, "rules are meant to be broken." If they were going to settle accounts according to the rules in this book... wouldn't someone like her, who took off using a Slime every day, be guilty of heinous crimes?

"Hehe... anyway, just give it a good read! When Lisa taught me magic, she also made me read a lot of thick books first!"

"It really looks so thick..." Paimon looked at the thickness of the book in Lumine's arms and sighed helplessly, "but there's no help for it. Anyway, let's read it first."

"Mm! Come find me at Windrise after you finish reading!"

After Amber warmly bid farewell to the trio, she leaped onto the railing of the plaza and flew toward the outskirts of the city using her Wind Glider.

As the "chief examiner," the girl's wobbly takeoff posture genuinely made Lumine and Paimon break out in a cold sweat.

By the time Amber's figure completely vanished, Lumine pulled Gabrielina along to read the Flight Guide Amber had left behind.

However, only after reading a few pages did she notice something amiss.

"It kind of, sort of looks more like a fairy tale?" Paimon tilted her head slightly, closely examining the childish illustrations on the page. "The Knights of Favonius Flight Guide... is it this style?"

"At least it's a good story," Gabrielina said with a smile.

"Nng... whatever, let's hurry up and go find Amber!"

At the edge of the cliff in Windrise, they found the Outrider standing on tiptoe and waiting.

"Ah, you're here!"

Hearing the sound, Amber turned her head and ran over cheerfully. "Have you read the Flight Guide properly? Are you familiar with all the rules and regulations?"

Lumine smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Well, I read it... but..."

"Nng, that reluctant tone, I understand, I understand," before Lumine could finish the second half of her sentence, Amber interrupted her with an utterly empathetic expression.

"The Flight Guide is just that dry and boring. I can't read it at all either... Ah, don't tell Acting Grand Master Jean I said that."

Amber pressed her palms together, playfully stuck out her tongue, and the three of them all wore knowing smiles.

"Actually... I think the story told in this Flight Guide is quite interesting?"

"An interesting story?" Amber froze, and then her eyes lit up. "You mean the case studies in the appendix!?"

"I liked some of them too, and my favorite is the one about violating regulations by taking off with a Slime! I heard that with the help of the airflow that bursts out when a Slime is broken, you can fly really, really high all at once. I really want to try it-"

Gabrielina chimed in excitedly as well, "Yeah, yeah! I heard that when a Large Slime jumps, if you step on its head, you can bounce super high too!"

"Huh? Really!?" Amber excitedly grabbed the angel's hands, her eyes sparkling.

Lumine: I'll try it another day.

Seeing the group charging full speed ahead toward becoming outlaws of the land, Paimon hurriedly interrupted them to uphold the remaining shreds of dignity of the Flight Guide and to protect the Slimes (?).

"What are you guys talking about! What's in that book is a story about a little bird wanting to learn how to fly..."

"Eh... Ah!?"

Amber shocked snatched the "Flight Guide" back from Lumine's hands, and within seconds, her entire face turned bright red.

"This! This seems to be the fairy tale book I liked most when I was little, not the Flight Guide..."

Fumbling flurriedly to put the book back into her bag, the girl's voice grew softer and softer. "I'm sorry... I put it together with the Knights of Favonius Flight Guide yesterday, so I definitely grabbed the wrong one when I went out."

"These two books... is there even a possibility of grabbing the wrong one?" Paimon asked in confusion.

"Ugh... to talk about this now, I really feel quite embarrassed."

"But the reason I grabbed the wrong one is perhaps because, in my heart, this book is the guide that taught me how to fly..."

She looked up at the overcast sky and said gently yet firmly, ""What matters is not a strong wind, but courage; it is what made you the world's very first birds." It was this sentence that gave me the courage to fly, allowing me to become an Outrider and the flying champion of Mondstadt..."

"Alright, alright!" Amber shook her head vigorously, almost sending her hair ribbon flying off. "Let's not talk about this anymore, let's start the exam right away!"

The girl turned to face the cliff, flashed Lumine a brilliant smile, and gave a high thumbs-up:

"Don't be nervous, just play to your usual flying standards!"

Following the direction of Amber's finger, the scenery suddenly opened up.

Countless white light rings left the cliff like overlapping lotus petals, spiraling downward like navigational beacons guiding the way, and finally blooming into layers of halos around the [Symbol of Mondstadt's Hero] in the exact center of Windrise.

"Follow the route I marked for you and fly steadily all the way to the finish line!"

"Do your best, Lumine!" Paimon circled around in front of the girl, clenching her small fists to cheer her on.

Seeing the other person look over, Gabrielina also smiled and gave Lumine a double thumbs-up.

...Hmph, it's just a mere gliding exam after all!

Lumine took a deep breath, hurried to the edge of the cliff, then bent her knees and jumped.

The Wind Glider suddenly unfurled behind her, and her petite body soared into the air once more, sweeping rapidly downward. The already distant ground retreated swiftly in her vision, gradually becoming blurry and indistinct.

Flowing clouds like misty gauze brushed past her ears, and the vast plains were tinted into a cyan-gray scroll in the color temperature of the overcast sky. The ancient flowing winds bore her body aloft, plunging into the layers of mist mid-air and breaking into the hazy, painted realm.

If there could just be a bit more sunshine, this would surely be a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

The girl was not flying particularly fast, and could even be said to have deliberately lowered her flying speed.

Thus, when she passed through the first glowing ring, she slipped through it with great ease, like an acrobat performing high-difficulty maneuvers.

Lumine was trying to "enjoy" the flight, but what about Gabrielina?

She had already been doing just that for a long time.

When riding in airplanes in the past, she could only sit obediently in her seat, able only to gaze and marvel at the clouds outside the window rather than being immersed in them, growing sore all over before long, unable to sleep well even if she wanted to, and easily ending up with a stiff neck.

Now, she could freely control her flight path, enjoying a broad field of vision while her body swayed freely with the flight. Compared to teleportation, what Gabrielina loved even more was the unfettered sense of freedom from her childhood imagination.

Being able to fly truly was something that could make a person ecstatic!

If possible, you could just fly like this without any destination for three days and three nights.

Flying into the clouds, flying to nations other than Mondstadt, flying to all kinds of places she had never been, and when tired from flying, finding a place to rest and have a huge meal, sleeping comfortably, and waking up to fly again-this ultimate experience was far more fun than a game.

Regrettably, now was clearly not the time...

Examinations required racing against the clock!

Moreover, Lumine had not forgotten that she had not truly grown a pair of wings; they were merely props, after all.

Controlling the Wind Glider, Lumine landed lightly on the ground, looked around the finish line, and immediately found Amber standing beside the bushes.

"Very good. As expected of someone who can maintain balance even in a storm, you've passed successfully."

"Where are Gabrielina and Paimon?", Lumine asked with puzzlement.

"They went to the second test site, of course," Amber blinked. "There are still two tests inside Mondstadt, you know~ You didn't think the Gliding License was going to be that easy to get, did you~"

"..."

She had never found a gliding exam this enjoyable before.